A Promise Painted Black
by La Sanguine
Summary: As Yaya fails to overcome her old feelings, her longing for an impossible love, she meets a darker part of Astraea Hill's past. Remi, a ex-Etoile succubus, tempts her with what she desires most: A future with Hikari. In exchange, she must offer somebody as sacrifice, and the girl Remi wants is Tsubomi. Will Yaya throw away Tsubomi's life for new hope, or stop before its too late?
1. Chapter 1

Astraea Hill has always been a haven for innocence, for budding love devoid of exploitation, devoid of degenerate lust and devoid of the dark touch the rest of the world laid upon everything sweet and innocent. The girls, towering and small, shy and blossoming, hesitant and assertive, have found friends and lovers along the borders of these trees, along the gentle white pathways back and forth from the dormitories, and in the hidden groves beyond the brick walls. Every tree holds the private memories of lovers, who crept away to commit their tender-hearted passion physically and emotionally, for only the stars to witness.

However, further beyond the majestic groves of trees that belonged to the lovers, there were darker woods still. No longer connected to Astraea Hill, and left to be touched by the rest of the darker world. All the coarseness and brutal envy spreads forth like roots and tendrils of a dark monster, coveting the hearts of girls not yet touched by love. It is here where the flowery strawberry romances end, and the despair begins. The turmoil spreading out gluttonously, looking for a way back into the sweet world of the girl's dormitories, and erase the last place in the world where true love could exist.

Twenty years before the Amane and Hikari joined together as etoiles, long before the fall of the sickly Kaori and long before the arrival of the girls you knew today, is where our story begins.

Tendrils of the wicked world planted a single seed of despair and overwhelming desire in a starry-eyed girl, bearing a bright white Spica uniform, tainted with the wrongness that was another girl's blood. Beside her was the one who shed blood, dressed in torn leggings, her sleepwear attacked by the sharp branches that caught upon her repeatedly, as she was drug to this hidden opening in the forest.

"Kazusa...why are you doing this to me?!" she whimpered out, her golden hair being the only color to stand out amongst the hues of black and grey in this lightless dungeon of a forest. The moon seemed to only paint her skin a shade of dead blue, to contrast her against the rest of her surroundings. "Kazusa! Answer me! I thought you were my friend!" she pleaded with the uniformed girl standing above her, her whimpering arms tied with a rope to keep her submitted to her captor.

The black haired Kasuza shook her head, peeking through her bangs with only a single blue eye. All doubt and empathy that once floated there was gone. "I'm sorry my dear Eri-chan. I wish I could've warned you not to care about me, to move along. There were many better girls you could've given your heart to, and you chose me. Like me, you fell in love with a person who didn't love you..." She let out a labored, pitiful laugh. Bordering on the edge of evil, and heartbroken. A laugh that was not truly malicious or dark, but somber, and almost like a cry. A last cry of one who would commit such a terrible deed to get what she wanted the most. To earn love that was impossible by any other means.

"It's not too late...we can go back...I promise I won't tell the headmothers. Just let us leave this evil place, together! Don't fall to the temptation of that demon..." Eri's cries began to get louder as she shook her tied-up arms, and tried to flail her weakened body enough to get away. It was all for naught though. The forest had weakened her on the way here. It was like the branches, with their sharpened ends and grasping arms, wanted to harm her. They prodded at her bare skin and tore at it as she kicked bare foot through crusty leaves and splintering thatch.

"Eri-chan...tell me...what would you have given, to be my one and true love?" Kasuza spoke, gazing off into the blackest reaches of the forest, devoid of any moonlight. The forest stayed silent, hushing its leaves and stirring branches to hear her answer. Eri whimpered to herself, prying out her answer through her shivering lips, her arms lowered to her barely covered chest. "I would give my everything for you...I would carve your name into my skin, into the oceans, into the moon, just to prove my worth to you. You are my angel Kasuza...so please, will you be my angel this one time? Please rescue me from this evil place..." Kasuza shook her head in consigned apathy. It was too late now.

"I'm sorry, but the only angel I can be to you now, Eri, is one of death. I'm so sorry, but I have to do this. I've come too far to stop now." Kasuza let go of Eri and let her fall to her knees in the middle of the soggy clearing, and the winds and growls of the forest began to roar once again. "Remi, I have brought my payment. Please take her away into the forest." Kasuza stepped away, and Eri broke into a panic of survival and rage. As she reared up on her worn down legs, shivering but filled with trepidation, filled with such unbearable betrayal that she wanted to lash out with every fiber of her body, she found she could not move anymore. She gazed towards Kasuza with malice, and heartbreak. She really did use her as a tithe, as a payment for a dark deal. "Did I really mean...so little to you?" she spoke out, as a wicked figure rose behind her, and placed its pitch-black hands across the girl's neck, measuring her as if she was going to place a necklace around her head.

The form began to emerge from the inky darkness with an inhuman luminosity, the tentacles forming into gentle glowing hands adorned in black gauntlet gloves that stretched all the way up her arm, the soft hum of a seductress voice whispering into Eri's ear. "Don't take it so personally dear...you're coming to a much better place." The feminine shadow's face pushed away bangs and gazed with hungry eyes that did not belong in such a sweet world, that should not have stared so lustfully at a pure-hearted girl like Eri. This was Remi, a demoness adorned in an open back dress that trailed off like the fins of a wretched siren or the cape of a wraith, and behind her were the most impressive features. Those wicked monstrous wings, a fusion of demon's leather and animalistic membrane, things that made the skin of both girls crawl with a feeling of foreboding wrongness. Such a human looking being should not have those. Yet here she was, and she was going to collect her sacrifice.

"Kasuza! I loved you! Did I really mean so little to you!?" screamed Eri, as monstrous branches and vines began to creep from the forest, and wrap around Remi's new acquisition, preparing her for the plunge into an unknown hell. Kasuza began to shiver, in the Spica uniform that should've kept even the most pervasive winds away. This was not a shiver of coldness, but the last memories of Eri being sucked away. The time they first met in the church. The time that they had eaten lunches together, when they had sat next to each other when the torrent of rain kept them locked underneath a tree, and touched hands. When Eri looked to Kasuza for the first time, and dreamed of a kiss that would never come. When Eri let Kasuza lean her face into her chest to cry for a love that she would never have, and hope that someday, Kasuza would come to love her instead.

These memories had to go to, she had to free herself from them, or going through Remi's deal would absolutely destroy her. "Yes...because I love Maaya-chan, and I can't go on in this terrible world, knowing she's not mine." Kasuza cried for Maaya-chan. She cried for the girl that the universe seemed to keep away from her. Every pained moment she watched her beloved redhead love somebody else, felt like a monstrous wrongness, like a sickle in her chest that cut deeper and deeper with every moment that Maaya spoke "I love you" to somebody else. There is no other way to have her. This is it. "Goodbye, Eri-chan." Kasuza shuddered and fought the tears that came, as if she was wrestling with a monster in the back of her head, threatening to break out.

Eri screamed, and with a wisp of her hand, Remi guided the poor girl into the edges of the forest, consumed completely and forever. Remi smiled, and glided across the ground without a step to Kasuza. She opened her hand, and placed a pendant of etched gold and a black teardrop jewel in her palm. "Your sweet Maaya-chan, is all paid for. Her heart belongs to you now." The wicked demoness smiled, and with that, she vanished into the forest, taking the noise and roar of the surroundings with her, leaving only Kasuza alone.

Kasuza shuddered at the horrors she had committed to the one who loved her, but soon, the girl that once sat underneath the tree with her, that cried into her chest, that thought that she could've chosen different, slowly died, and became no more. Only a crazed shell stood there in the tainted whiteness of her uniform, shaking her hands with the black pendant in her hands, laughing as her madness consumed her. A crazed heart-sick, wide-eyed expression and the insanity of desire and lust remained, as she screamed out to the moon, her only witness, of her horrid crime.

She screamed out until her vocal cords quivered, ill-omened and overfull in madness. "I've finally done it! Maaya-chan finally loves me! I'll never be alone again!"

Once upon a time, a girl wanting nothing more than to turn the World that Could Have Been, into a real place, felt the weight of a seed in her hand, that could make it all come true.

"Yaya-chan!" a soft voice echoed through the bright green grass and tickled the ears of a dark haired girl, wanting nothing more to be left alone. When she saw that it was Hikari running across the grass to meet her, her knife-sharp eyes relaxed, and seemed to flow with approval and happiness at the sight. "Hello Hikari-san, what brings you to my spot with such overwhelming energy?" Yaya replied, breaking from the wall and twirling in the grass on her feet, ready to welcome her sweet-faced friend.

"Your spot? I thought it was my spot too!" she huffed, playfully rocking back and forth on her feet. "Ah yes, I forgot how you claimed your spot. However, all of this..." Yaya raised her hands, signifying all of the bright grass that stretched on from the wall. "...is mine. Your spot is over there." Yaya pointed to the tuft closest to the shrubs that was a mix of sweet Astraea Hill grass, and the wilds beyond. Hikari made small, cute fists and wiggled them in front of her. "What? You made my half smaller again!? How could you Yaya-chan..." she made the irresistible cute face, feigning tears and sniffling. "I won't have anywhere to sit if this keeps up...you're so cruel." she whimpered again, eventually melting Yaya's heart and making her cave in.

"Okay, okay, I renounce my selfish claim, and have formally decided to merge our lands together. Your half is my half, and vice versa. We shall share the secret spot." Hikari cheered, and Yaya smiled. She missed being able to make Hikari smile. There was something heavenly about Hikari that Yaya was only able to put a finger on in certain times. No, there was something sacred about this girl. Her beautiful face was a work of perfection, one that you could stare into forever, and let your heart be completely consumed by. It made you want to protect it from the despairs of the world, to hold it in your hands as it shuddered and cradle it. Don't cry, sweet Hikari. I will be your guardian. She remembered the incidents Hikari between Kaname, a girl too aggressive and antagonistic to be left alone with her sweet crush, and that drove her into a protective state every since. There were people who could harm her angel, and she would never allow it.

"Yaya-chan? wake up." Yaya responded to the calls of Hikari. "I'm sorry, I was just remembering something. That time with Kaname..." A slightly somber mood fell over the both of them. Like Hikari always could, she broke the somberness with her cheerful and happy energy. "I'm not mad at her for it though. I forgave her, just like I forgave you, Yaya." She let an honest smile stretch across her face, that almost brought Yaya into tears. Right. Yaya had tried to force herself onto Hikari. How hypocritical she felt in that moment, thinking of herself as a heroine, only to become the next hound who lusted for her and tried to force her desires upon someone else. She pushed it away with as much fortitude as possible. Not without a shudder in her breath though. "Hikari..." was all she managed to say.

"You don't need to beat yourself up over the past, Yaya-chan. You are my best friend, and I'll always be here for you. I know your hiding places, and when you shy away from everything, I'll be here to bring you back. I'll support you like you supported me. I'm the etoile after all." Hikari flexed her arms, letting her white uniform ripple as the teardrop pendant around her neck danced across her chest. "Lord Etoile, guardian of all the dormitories, representative supreme! I get to be your protector now!" They both shared a laugh, and Hikari grabbed Yaya's hand. "Alone time is over, come eat with me and Amane in the grove!" Yaya was dragged from the sulking privacy of her spot, and pulled back into the sugary world of Astraea Hill once again.

Amane welcomed the both of them, and they all retreated into the grove with picnic supplies in hand. In all of her sophisticated glory, Amane happily swept her fellow etoile from the ground and nuzzled her, petting her along the head and securing a kiss on her cheek. Together the three of them found a perfect spot along the side of the waters to enjoy their food. "Won't we get in trouble for being here though?" Yaya asked, narrowing her eyebrow at Amane and Hikari. They both tilted their heads at Yaya, and almost perfectly synchronized, they pulled out their jeweled necklaces and smiled. "Oh! Right. Etoile privileges." They all laughed together, skipping rocks across the waters. In a fervor of competition, Yaya locked eyes with Amane. "I skipped it more than yours, dear Etoile." She smiled with playful impishness, and Amane accepted the challenge. "It's only because I am sitting down. Let us stand equally across the bank and do a real test." With her tongue poking from her lips, she measured the angle of her hand, and flung a rock across the surface, making it bounce 4 times. "Alright, you are next my-" Yaya interrupted Amane with a quick flick of her hand, and made the rock bounce 1,2,3,4...and 5 times across the surface. Amane blinked with surprise.

"Can you one up that, my prince?" Yaya snatched a rock from the ground and with playful sinisterness awaited for Amane to respond. "Oh no my dear princess, it would be wrong to stop now." Yaya and Amane continued their game of skipping rocks, some sinking before 5, and others sprawling across the water so distortedly it was hard to count the amount of splashes. "I think -huff- that last one was 7." responded Amane, her arms on her knees as she caught her breath. The amount of rocks they threw spanned over twenty minutes, and they emptied the beach they were on. Yaya held her hand in pain, pink with the rush of blood of flicking her hand too hard. "I don't know, give yourself some credit, it might've been 8."

"I thought you would've said 5, and accuse me of faking my score." Yaya rolled her eyes. "Hey, I'm not that bitter!" Yaya stuck her tongue out playfully, as she matched Amane in her position. "Well, looks like neither of us know who would be the better, right Hika-" A flat rock burst from between them, slapping across the cool water and leaving a trail of circular splashes that spanned the pond until the entire thing was rippling. Hikari had casted her own rock while Yaya and Amane rested, and amazingly, she had left 12 rippling rings in its wake. Yaya and Amane gazed at her in amazement.

Hikari only stood in place, her arms proudly at her sides. "Ah, Newbies." They all laughed, while Yaya and Amane showered Hikari with surprise and praise. "Well, maybe we should continue this tomorrow. Of course, we'll have to find a new beach. This one barely has any rocks." Amane joked, as she readied all of her picnic supplies and joined Hikari. Yaya nodded her head, and looked to the emptied beachside closest to her, and noticed something. It shimmered like Amane's necklace. While Amane and Hikari traded affectionate smiles and touches, Yaya walked over to the dirty patch, and pulled on a dusty gold chain that protruded from the mud...and revealed a necklace.

It was an etoile's necklace, for sure. It was the same exact make, even down the the ornamental gold chain it sat on, however, the teardrop jewel was different. She rubbed it, trying to get the black tarnish off, but it remained. It was a deep black jewel, crystalline in make and certainly not plastic, but the touch of it felt crude, it felt unearthly, as if it was carved from the heart of a dark mountain, and the golden metal simply grew onto it like a parasitic weed. It was a rather creepy thing, but it drew her in. Yaya pocketed it away for later, shoving it into her coat pocket and meeting up with her friends once again.

Amane walked them all to the front doors of the Spica dorms, and as Yaya reached the vast doors, she felt a tinge of nervousness. Why was she nervous all the sudden? Because the day was over? No, they always had tomorrow, and with all of their chores attended to and classes caught up, there was nothing to disturb the days of her and her close friends. Yaya assured herself, pulling from the doors to look back to her room mate Hikari. "Hikari, you ready to call it a...day?" Yaya hesitated at the end of her sentence, as she looked on, and realized she had walked alone to the doors. On the pathway towards the school, in front of the fountain of Virgin Mary, Amane and Hikari stood, their hands bound together in such undeniable affection, with eyes filled with true and utter happiness, that stars peaked past clouds just to witness them. Hikari glowed with joy, her big heavenly eyes tearing up as Amane opened up to her. Hikari brushed Amane's deep blue bangs out of the way, just to lock eyes with her lover and share this personalized essence of joy with her. Hikari wrapped her arms around Amane's neck and shoulders, pulling her tall lover down towards her and locking a soft, love-filled kiss onto her lips. They blushed with the intensity of a lily's bloom.

Yaya could feel their heart beats rattle out of control even from her position, the thrill of the kiss sending shivers down their spines, and even into her own. The excitement tantalized Yaya, but triggered something deep that she had thought she had pushed away a long time ago. Loss. Yaya gazed on and realized, in an undeniable truth, that Hikari was happy with Amane, absolutely and completely. Amane made her feel things that Yaya could never do. It felt wrong to be in this scene with them, to share the same ground as these two happy lovers, Etoile and Etoile. They have found their happily ever after. Yaya, however, had not. Yaya lowered her eyes, allowing them to curl into their defensive knife-like sharpness, and she entered the dormitory alone, leaving her friends to adore each other in a moment only for them.

Yaya had reached the dorm room first, and looked down the hall to see nothing. It would make her so happy to see Hikari running up the stairs towards her, waving her hand and trying to catch her breath. "Wait for me, Yaya!" she would cry out, and it would relieve her, it would make her feel important somehow. Hikari did not run up those stairs, and Yaya entered the room alone, and closed the door behind her. Yaya leaned upon it, as if to keep her feelings of loss, of jealousy and undeniable wanting locked out. Yes, Amane was a good person, Amane is perfect for Hikari. There is no right reason to hate that princely blue-haired girl, is there? No reason other than jealousy, of envy, to justify your yearning heart.

Yaya shook her head, and pushed her hands deep against the door. "No. Those feelings belong out there. They are not welcome here anymore. My friends are happy, I should be happy too, shouldn't I?" She spoke aloud, chuckling to herself as the facade she held, as this true friend that Yaya was pretending to be began to crack like stressed porcelain, the white smoothness being damaged by a force too much to bear. "But I'm not happy. Not without you Hikari." Finally, she caved in, sliding her back across the door until she was slumped at the bottom. She could see that undeniably beautiful face gazing upwards, happily nuzzling a nose that wasn't hers, drinking in the life essence of another and lovingly whispering a sentence that would cause Yaya's heart to continue to cry out in pain. "I love you, Amane-san."

"Was I not pretty enough? Was I too aggressive? Did I choose the wrong room mate? What went wrong?" Yaya began to break down there, clenching her fists, feeling the urge to batter the wooden floor with them. "I wish I didn't love you anymore Hikari, it hurts so much. I wish I could hide from you forever. I wish you never knew where to find me. Because I can't let you see me like this, I can't let you know...that I can't do this anymore. I want you to tell me you love me...not her." Finally, Yaya crumpled across the ground, and sobbed, letting the sorrow and the heartbreak bulge from her aching soul and go flying into the ethers of her heart, like leaves set free from an autumn pile. The pain made its own shapes, made its own colors as she hated this world she was in, hated this situation, and hated herself for being less desirable than Amane. "I want to be your etoile, Hikari..." As she laid across the ground, she felt the sting of a bead against her breast.

Yaya wiped her tears, and pulled out the pure-black necklace, staring at it through the kaleidoscope of water and pearly light. Her glossy eyes measured it, and she felt its weight in her hand, welcoming, happy. Yaya fancied the idea that floated in her head. She left the door, and went into the bathroom. She clipped on the black etoile pendant, and let it sit there upon her rising chest. She rubbed the teardrop between her fingers as she gazed at the pained girl in the mirror, trying to find what was so wrong with her, that Hikari could not gaze dreamily and longingly at her. It was time to shower, time to call it a night. She pulled away her jacket, dressing down until not even her bra and panties remained, and left the black jewel in place to pretend, even for a few minutes, that she was Hikari's etoile.

As Yaya let the steam and touch of the warm water cleanse her tears and her hopeless musings away, she felt the coldness of the pendant on her neck seem to negate the harshness of the shower. It cooled the burn, like a gentle shard of ice fighting away the breathless burn of steam. She welcomed it, and ran her fingers through her hair, eyes closed and mind fading into a blackness of relaxation. As she let out a sigh of relief, she felt the clasp of hands reach around her breasts, and caress them unwelcome.

Yaya violently surged back, panic and rage filling her body as she hid her chest and slumped against the shower walls as closely as possible, her eyes measuring every inch of the bathroom with violence ready in her mind. What the hell was that!? Who was that!? She saw a figure there, standing in the shower with her, pale and naked and heavenly. So heavenly, that it paralyzed her and set her stupid with shock. She had expected a man, a pervasive monster or skulking predator to have invaded her private moment, but instead, it was everything she wanted.

It was Hikari. Her soft blue eyes with perfect lashes, and her perfectly sculpted face gazed at her with carnal softness, her eye-lids relaxed and her face blushing. The water ran off her body in admirable rivulets, revealing not a single imperfection on her skin. She was so beautiful to behold that even the tendrils of lust that lived in her heart refused to lash out. Hikari was truly an angel, something to worship, not to violate or defile, a lily of purity, of beauty. It left Yaya breathless as she tried to wrestle with the wrongness of the situation. On Hikari's bare chest there sat the Etoile's necklace, but the bead there was as black as her own. This was not the real Hikari. Yaya waved her arms at the phantasm in anger.

"You aren't the real Hikari, get the hell out of here!" she said in the sternest voice possible, swearing for the first time in a long time, teeth gritting and expressing her repulsion. Instead of revealing its wicked nature, or hissing, or smiling with demonic intent, the gentle expression of the false Hikari flinched. Her eyes widened, and her eyebrows curled into sadness, of shock and hurt, and the false Hikari looked down as if she was wronged, as if she was denied what she wanted most. As if she was Yaya so long ago, having to accept Hikari was never going to be hers.

Yaya caught herself reaching out to the irresistible figure, wanting to protect it and hold it, to comfort it. "No, I'm sorry, don't go!" she caught herself saying, already throwing her caution and defensiveness to the wind as the false Hikari hopped out of the shower, and vanished completely. What took her place in the bathroom, was schadenfreudian laughter, the laughter of a older girl disembodied and unseen in the shower.

"Well now, Yaya, I think you've made it obvious what your weakness is. I can't believe you'd reach out to that illusion. What if I was here to kill you? You would've shown your neck at a blade just to gaze at the nude body of your paramour, wouldn't you?" Remi said, sending Yaya back into her defensive state. Yaya kneeled down, covering her body, and thinking about the jewel. She hooked it with her fingers and ripped it off over her head, tossing it onto the ground in a phobic rush. The necklace sat on the ground, still and wet until it shivered, and floated up next to the door, and in the air, a girl in a long black dress appeared, eyes ruby red and lips curled into a sadistic smile.

"Who are you?" snarled Yaya, who cautiously measured up the phantasm before her. "I am Remi, and I am here to answer your pleas where nobody else would, my dear." Remi played with the jewel on her neck, and locked onto Yaya's golden eyes. "I want to let you know, that I am the only one who listened to you when you cried out, when you longed for a touch from Hikari that would never come, that I understand the heartbreak you must endure to assure her happiness. I am no agent of evil my dear, I am an Etoile just like them, just from a darker part of Astraea Hill's history." Etoile. What etoile looks so unheavenly, so wrong in this sweet world of hers? Everything here was saintly, innocent, filled with smiles and pureness, but merely looking at this sultry creature, a curvy godless spirit that left the lust in Yaya's heart to stir, made her feel wrong, she did not belong here.

"I don't make deals with the devil. Get out of here." Yaya harshly said, her eyes cruel and violent, wet hair spilled over her face but letting the wild gold of her pupils glare through. Remi frowned, and pulled the black necklace from her body, and set it gently on the bathroom counter. Any other girls would get terrified, scream out for help, or whimper like a fawn at the sight of her, but Yaya was different. She was a defiant one, a fighter, no mere virgin to push into fright. She could trust Yaya in this moment to be silent enough to hear her offer. No need to paralyze her with a touch. "I am no devil, Yaya-chan. I am the only thing that can save you from this terrible world, where you must watch the one you love, love somebody else. I've felt that pain too, and swore I would save others from that terrible fate, even after my death." Remi gazed at the mirror, analyzing herself with sorrowful eyes, and for a second Yaya realized that she had once made the same expression. The time she tried to take Hikari as her own, and was pushed away. The time where she lost Hikari as a lover forever.

"Yaya, I can make Hikari love you. But what I do is not free. The cost is blood, a taste of this sweet world where I am no longer allowed. I can stay here no longer, but I leave the decision to you. Feel free to ignore me, feel free to drive me away in the words of your God. However, remember if you do this, you'll remain in this tempest forever, and you accept your fate." And with that, Remi vanished, and left Yaya all alone in the bathroom, doubting whether or not what happened was a figment of her imagination. Yaya had just had her first supernatural encounter. She laid there in the shower, the water being the only contrasting sound she could hear beyond her violent heart beat. "That nasty creature touched me. She really did touch me." She had worn the skin of Hikari, and a sickening feeling welled up in her chest, as she realized the shame of her instinctive actions. She tried to comfort the fleeing demon, despite defiling her breasts with an unwanted touch.

That night, Yaya returned to her bed, ignoring Hikari completely and feeling the cold weight of the necklace in her hand once again. She wasn't sure what to make of this relic. Every single cell of common sense told her to throw it away, to bring it to the church and have it exorcised. Whoever this Remi was, she wasn't of this world, and she sure as hell wasn't a friend or benevolent creature. She touched her in the guise of Hikari, invading her privacy and using her yearning heart as a sadistic toy. For all she knew, it could've been a stress induced fantasy. Nothing was for sure except for one thing, Yaya would test it out in the morning, she wouldn't let this Remi try to bully her or seduce her in Hikari's form. She would learn more about what this creature, this succubus was, and when she was done, she would destroy it.

"Yaya...are you awake?" a soft voice said across the room.

Yaya choked up, but composed herself, her back facing Hikari and her hand clutched tight, hiding the necklace. "...Yes Hikari-chan..."

"I hope I don't make you uncomfortable, when I ask you to hang out with me and Amane...it's just I don't want to lose either of you. I don't want either of you to dislike each other." Hikari's small voice was a sweet thing, disarming to the point of brushing away all of your apprehension and anger. Hikari was not naive though, and she knew that Yaya was uncomfortable in some instances.

"It's not that I dislike her Hikari. That's not it at all, she's perfect for you. She treats you with so much respect, and she loves you as much as you love her." Yaya didn't continue after that. She couldn't say the next line. "I feel like I am inferior to her, and that's why I couldn't have you."

"I can feel how sad you are sometimes, even now. You are strong and full of energy, but that's a cover for something else, a pain. You were hiding something today. What was it?" Hikari asked. Yaya had an idea, looking at the black necklace in her hand. If it really was a delusion, this would be the best way to test it. It would better than admitting what she couldn't say.

"Hikari, I found a necklace over by the water...and I think it might be cursed. Can you put it on and tell me what you see?"

Hikari accepted, and took the necklace from Yaya's hand. "While normally, people would say no to putting on supposedly cursed jewelry. But since I have the tough Yaya-chan defending me, I trust you'll keep me safe from any curses." She turned her hair to the side, and pulled it over her head, and sat there for a few seconds. "Do you see anything? Do you feel weird at all?"

Hikari paused for a beat, but shook her head. "I feel like a double etoile, but that's about it." She grinned, and unclipped the necklace. "But Yaya, I have something to ask of you too. Come kneel before me." Yaya looked up confused, but obeyed, kneeling before Hikari's bedside. She bestowed the necklace onto Yaya. "I nominate you as the third, secret etoile. It is a prestigious title I only give to a select few, and I think of you as the most honorable..recipient." She stumbled on words, and as Yaya chuckled, Hikari drew Yaya in with a powerful hug. "I am thankful for all that you've done for me. I hope I can be as good of a friend to you, as you've done for me. I don't want you to ever feel like I want you to stay away." As Yaya absorbed Hikari's hug, she could feel herself tear up, letting Hikari's silky golden hair blanket her face, and she felt the old evils of her heart suddenly flood back. How wrong she felt as a creature to be cherished by such a beauty. "I am not worthy of being your friend, Hikari...I am a petty and jealous animal who can only think of having you for my own, and I hate it so much, but I can't make it go away..." raged the thoughts in Yaya's mind, and as she shuddered in Hikari's arms, the coldness of the necklace danced along her collarbone again, and in that moment, she realized that she would not reject the offer, she would not send the relic away to be destroyed or purified, and that whatever dark creature that this once belonged to, she would not challenge it or be rid of it.

Even if it only sought out to make her suffer, to kill her, it would be no worse than this. To lie to the girl you love most and make her believe you did not covet her so adamantly. She was so tired of this world, tired of the world where this gentle benevolent angel was unobtainable to her, and to exist in the same world as her, unable to progress your love any further, was a curse all of its own. Yaya rested her weary head against Hikari's and felt the weight of the necklace rest in her fingers. She gazed on towards their window, at the dark of the night. Remi...are you telling the truth? What blood must I give, to have this world be real?

Once upon a time, a girl wanting nothing more than to turn the World that Could Have Been, into a real place, felt the weight of a seed in her hand, that could make it all come true.


	2. Chapter 2

Kasuza wandered from the darkness of the forest, hopping over the brick wall and landing with a thud. She gazed at her coat for the first time, and saw the red spatters across it. From when her struggle with her room mate got too heated. She pulled it off like an unwanted parasite, shuddering and tossing it over the brick wall, as if the forest she ran from would hide it for her. She retreated to the dorms cautiously, panting and full of toxic nervousness that made her want to vomit, made her want to fall down. No, she couldn't now. She had finished the deal, the black pendant was hers. Kasuza took a breath, trying as hard as she could to wipe the adrenaline-injected smirk from her face, and alleviate her wild, insane eyes opened too wide.

She coiled through the stairway of the Spica dormitory as silently as possible, making sure the headmother wasn't doing headcount. Luckily, she had already retreated to the night office, reading and praying. The demoness Remi made good on her deal to make the sacrifice flawless and undetected. Nobody had even known there was a commotion. Kasuza strode to her own dorm room, pushing it open with a tender finger, and walked into a room that felt wrong. One side of her room kept all of her familiar things, but it was the other side that sent out a shiver of loss. There was all of Eri's belongings. The bands she tied in her hair every day, the brush she would use to straighten the gentle rivers of her long hair, the pair of slippers she would tap Kasuza's head with in an attempt to get her to wake up when she slept in late. "You can't press snooze on the slipper alarm, Kazu-chan!" she'd yell out eagerly, as Eri would rapidly spank her sleeping head with it. Slap slap slap! Until Kasuza emerged from the covers like a zombie, ready to shoo away the slipper like an unwanted fly. Kasuza clutched the slipper with familiarity, chuckling to herself over it. Sweet Eri-chan would never wake her up again, and nobody would even know she was missing anymore.

Any sacrifices to the forest would never be remembered again. So why, why did Kasuza know who any of this stuff belonged to? Kasuza laid on her lost room mates bed this night, the slipper in one hand, and the pendant in the other, letting the horrors of the forest blaze through her head until the sun painted the sky deep blue again, her eyes strained, ached with red veins and darkened under-eye color. Kazusa heard a knock at her door.

"Kasuza? This is the police department. We are here to question you about the disappearance of your room mate." spoke an unfamiliar, masculine voice behind the door. The amount of dread that blasted through Kasuza's blood could've ruptured the veins in her eyes, it was so fierce. She flipped off of the bed and landed on the ground with a thud, shaking her head in disbelief. "No, no, there's no way. This is impossible!" She almost deteriorated right there, clutching the slipper in her hand so tight her fingers went white.

That was until Remi melted through the door, grinning and laughing to herself, her wings aiding her stride across the ground like decrepit pteranodon-like limbs, blades of membrane stretching and contracting. Her bedroom, once a save haven, now felt wronged, violated and disgusting, upon letting this seductress enter it. Inhumanly glowing eyes peered out from bangs, and sultry lips curled to their resting state. But even as she smiled at Kasuza with condemnation, the laughter continued, spiraling down in pitch until it was feminine no longer, almost gurgling and vomiting like a cauldron. Kasuza slinked back from between the two beds towards the windowed wall, lowering her eyes to keep them away from the beautiful creature, the evil creature.

"Forgive me Kazu-chan, but I couldn't resist torturing you again. The amount of panic I draw from you is...irresistible." She chuckled to herself in her own voice, the guttural gurgling stopping and setting the room silent. "Why are you here, Remi?" asked Kasuza, gritting her teeth and wiping the terror-induced tears from her eyes, as she threw the slipper at the succubus. Remi simply watched it flop against her large breasts, and she caught it on the fall down, gloved fingers coiling into a harpy's talons. "Well my girl, I just came here to check on you! Since you've let me into the sealed little world of Astraea Hill, I can do this as often as I want again. Making sure that you were enjoying your newfound love, but I see you here, mourning your sacrifice."

Kasuza felt ill at the mention of sacrifice. "Why is Eri's stuff still here? I thought you would erase her completely, and nobody would remember her...I wouldn't remember her." Remi floated across the ground, her ragged dress slithering across the ground as her wings assisted her forward, putting her a kisses length away from Kasuza. "Dear Kazu-chan, beautiful, irresistible Kazu-chan..." Remi placed a hand along Kazusa's face, letting a powerful and supernatural blush permeate from her face and set her panicked eyes into ones of relaxation, of school girl yearning. "...I couldn't resist torturing you again." As Remi stood there, her predatory smile relaxing, her face began to morph into one of familiarity, one of immeasurable beauty that it made Kazusa's legs buckle and her lip quiver. She had morphed into Maaya. "I'm waiting for you, Kazusa-sama..." echoed Maaya's gentle voice, her eyes sparkling and filled with happiness. As Kasuza leaned in to embrace the face of Maaya, to kiss her with unrestrained desire and love, suddenly, the face morphed again. It morphed into Eri, crying, screaming and panicking.

"You let her kill me Kasuza! How could you let this happen to me!? I hope you burn in hell!" and in that instant, Remi vanished, her laughter trailing off once again as Kasuza shuddered in place, completely consumed by fear and dread, collapsing to the ground and vomiting as her imagination ran wild, her mind trying to comprehend the infinite expanses of hell that her dear friend's soul was now living in. Deep and unsearchable, a necrotic nether filled with pain and screaming, agony and horror.

Another knock at the door, more panicked and worried. "Kasuza? Are you okay? Kasuza!" screamed a familiar girl. She was too paralyzed to respond, breathing heavily and shivering in the cold touch of regret. Why was Remi doing this to her? She did exactly what she asked, she gave Eri to the forest. The contract was complete, wasn't the pendant a sign of that? Did she forget something? Was the deal completely fictional to begin with, and was Remi just toying with her? Her imagination ran wild, and she melted away from the reality around her, sobbing and panicking. Dread consumed her, flossed it's teeth with her soul as the detached insanity she once had began to melt, and she felt her humanity return in bursts, ugly and ashamed, as she wondered if Eri's soul, Eri's entire being, was worth throwing away for a warm touch, a tender kiss of her perfect sweet heart. Is any love worth killing somebody over?

"Somebody help me, anyone, God, Saint Spica, Saint Miator, Saint Lulim...anyone. I've done something terrible, so terrible...somebody please help me..." Kazusa coiled into spasms on the ground, as the door flung open. A lithe and willowy girl with glorious sunfire hair burst through the door, and saw the suffering girl on the ground, crying and wailing, praying in a garbled weeping she could barely understand. Her uniform brightened up the room with a sun-touched white that seemed to introduce her like a guardian angel. "Kasuza, it's me, Maaya. Stay with me okay? You're going to be fine." Kasuza could not see her past the continuous stretch of black that ate away what she could see, her consciousness fading. "Somebody get the head-mother! Quick!"

Little golden eyes peered through the bushes lining the dormitories. Branches from the bushes poked out of her bright pink hair comedically, almost decorating her as a Greek nymph. Tsubomi was on the hunt. "Where are you? You should be coming out any time now." she spoke to herself sternly, scanning the girls that poured out of the dorms and into the morning sun, laughing and talking amongst each other. Black hair! No, that wasn't her. Golden eyes! No, not her either. The little eyes darted back and forth searching for her elusive prey. She hadn't seen Yaya in a couple days, and made it her mission to catch her. "You can't hide from me forever." she grinned to herself, as she locked onto her prey. Walking by herself, her eyes locked onto the ground. "Target acquired, Plan A is go."

* * *

Tsubomi pushed through the bushes as silently as possible, stumbling through the branches and catching herself from falling forward, matching Yaya's stride with her own and pushing leaves and twigs from her hair, straightening it with a flick of her hand. "Oh hey Yaya, I didn't see you there!" Totally nailed it.

"Were you trying to sneak up on me?" Yaya asked, her eyes breaking from their somber stare and analyzing her softly. "Of course not! I just happened to be going this way." Tsubomi announced, as she held her head high, feigning ignorance. Yaya sent her hand outwards and pulled her closer. They passed by the fountain safely, the one that Tsubomi would've crashed into if he continued forward. "You know the tsun-tsun strategy can get you hurt if you aren't aware of your surroundings." Tsubomi huffed. "I am doing no such thing, Yaya!" Yaya smiled at the huffing and puffing of her little friend. "Keep telling yourself that Tsunde-bomi. How have you been?"

Tsubomi shrugged. "What do you mean? I've been fine, it's you I was worried about. I couldn't find you anywhere." Yaya curled her finger, signaling Tsubomi to follow her towards the church where the choir sang. "I just needed some alone time was all. My mind has been a hurricane recently." Tsubomi analyzed the tall girl before her, and while she was out of line of sight, let the butterflies in her stomach flutter a bit. That jet black hair was just amazing to see. Majestic and clean, so well kept and so soft to the touch. She wanted to grab a fistful of it and feel the flawless texture of it all. Tsubomi wanted hair like that. Even with the care she gave it, it paled in comparison to Yaya's. Majestic Yaya, Beautiful Yaya. Sexy Yaya. Fearsome Yaya!

Tsubomi beamed with cartoonish fervor, and scuttled her way back towards Yaya. "So Tsubomi, do you really not know where I go in my free time?" Tsubomi shook her head. "Well, it's not exactly a bat cave, but its a special place I like to call my own, a place where I go that people can't bother me. People like you for instance." She smirked at her comment. "I'm a bother to you?" Tsubomi felt insulted, but played along with it as she saw Yaya's non-hostile expression. "Oh, a huge bother. I can't seem to get away from you anymore, maybe its this leash you put on me." She tugged at the choker necklace that was around her neck, a little black lace strip. Tsubomi had given to her as a present, an offering that "totally doesn't mean we are girlfriends", as she called it.

"It's not a leash, it was something I saw in town that I thought would look really nice on you." Yaya twirled, a catlike smirk on her face. "Oh, so you wanted to dress me up all sexy for you then? Dirty Tsubomi." Tsubomi exploded into a panic of blushing. "No no no no nooo! I just thought it looked nice!" she waved her hands forward in a rapid flourish of shyness and girly shame. "So, you don't think I'm sexy? Oh..." Yaya sank her head down, her bangs blanketing her expression as she strolled away slowly. Tsubomi reflexively reached out. "No! I think you do! Super sexy!" As she let the comment explode from her mouth, she cupped it closed, as Yaya's catlike grin surfaced once again. "Tsubomi hentai~"

Tsubomi's face went so pink that nobody could tell where her hair began and her face started. "Why do you continue to embarrass and exploit me like this!? How do you do that!?" Tsubomi stamped her foot down on the ground, and Yaya laughed. "Oh come now, at least nobody was around to see me put you in such an embarrassing state. I just like playing with you younger girls is all. You're silly and filled with emotion, much less reserved. That just makes you that much more fun to hang with than girls my age." They looked around, realizing that the churches pathway was completely bare, locking them in a moment all of their own. Finally they both sighed, and relaxed as Yaya led them to the fabled spot that Tsubomi never bothered to look. Green grass stretched on towards a hidden alcove where nobody could see her unless they actively looked. "Welcome to my special spot! Now get out." She shoved Tsubomi into one of the softly trimmed bushes and giggled, while Tsubomi emerged and gave chase towards her running senpai.

"So, you never did answer my question." Yaya said, sitting against the brick wall, relaxed while Tsubomi did the same, her body language defensive and reserved. A bit of strain seemed to melt away as Tsubomi answered. "Question?"

"Yes, from the last time we talked, after the Etoile election." Tsubomi attempted to wrap her hands around a journal that wasn't there, her gestures almost instinctual now. She let her hands fall to her side. "What is it that you spend so much time writing about?" Tsubomi remembered her journal, wedged deep underneath her bed, the hard-cover's edges hollowed out and filled with folded up pieces of paper. Pieces of paper that bore many sentences, many paragraphs that were seen only by her, that held the key to her heart's desires. One thing that stretched across many of these papers, was just a single word. "Yaya."

"I write about things I think are pretty..." Yaya. "...things that make me happy, and cheer me up when I'm sad." Yaya. "Things that I will miss if I ever leave this school." Yaya. "Things I have grown so attached to, that I think I won't be able to live without them." Yaya.

Yaya relaxed, gazing up into the sky with dreamy eyes. "Ah, those are nice things to write about. Maybe someday, you can show me what you write, when you are comfortable enough around me." Tsubomi blushed, and nodded nervously. "...Sure! they're not ready yet,,,but eventually I can." Tsubomi had written another thing repeatedly in that journal too, a command, a suggestion, that she just couldn't get the courage to do. "Today I will tell Yaya." Today was the day she would tell her. This is what Plan A was all about, right? Tsubomi took a deep breath, feeling the clamminess of her hands and the rush of her heartbeat as she sat idle right next to the girl that captivated her heart, that drew her in with her beautiful but sad appearance. Her untouchable face and her sympathetic eyes. Her tough and feisty exterior, but still stunning features. She felt safe around Yaya, it made her feel right, made her feel protected. Oh god, she was so nervous right now. Could Yaya see it? Did she know the entire time? It felt stupid pretending that she wasn't so in love with Yaya right now.

Love!?

Tsubomi exploded into a rage of pink and blush, her heartbeat skipping and thrumming in her chest so loud she could barely hear her inner screaming. Using "Love" and "Yaya" in the same sentence made her feel like imploding.

However, Yaya was not her usually cat-like self, leaning over with a mischievous smirk on her face as she pounced on Tsubomi's shyness or doubt. She was not running her fingers along the grass or dreamily relaxing. She was troubled, she held a heavy heart, her love-filled eyes losing all of their sheen and life, sitting in her head merely measuring the depth of the bushes in front of her, her perfectly drawn eyebrows tilted in a melancholy flatness.

"I didn't realize that until yesterday, that I lost the only thing I couldn't live without...and I will never have it back." Yaya ran her fingers along her choker necklace, and clutched something else along her neck, pulling it out and gazing into its insidious dark. The black etoile pendant. She remembered Remi, in all of her unholy glory, and the beautiful words that laid silent in her head, and seemed to trance her. "Yaya, I can make Hikari love you." She felt the words of Hikari pour into her mind again. "I don't want you to ever feel like I want you to stay away." And another, and another. The words of Hikari poured into her mind, sweet soft words, and then ones that broke her heart every time she heard them. "Please!" "No more!" "Stop!" Yaya felt truly ashamed, and realized she was no different than the demon Remi. She was a creature of lust, who preyed upon others. She slumped in place, and let her mask crack, revealing her sorrow and shame to the world.

Tsubomi felt the thrumming in her heart begin to slow, and she felt a drive. A drive to look at Yaya in a different light. She was weak too, in all of her strength, protectiveness and joy, she had been damaged. This drive channeled Tsubomi's courage, and she could feel herself growing in different ways, to step away from the childish indifference and flutter-hearted romance, to step into the shoes of a woman, an able bodied girl that could help somebody suffering from things beyond their control. To alleviate the pain of the one she loved, the one she wrote so much about. It was her time to save someone, to protect someone.

Tsubomi scooted closer to Yaya, breaking her dismal view on the bushes and standing up in front of her. Her heart was beating, and her hands were sweating. She stretched her arms out and cupped Yaya's head between them, and pulled them close to her heart. Yaya twitched, her eyes widening at the act, and she could hear Tsubomi's heartbeat racing out of control, scared and nervous. "Yaya. You don't have to be alone anymore...I will help you find the thing you can't live without. If I can't find your old thing, I will help you find a new one. We can have both of our special things together. "

Yaya shook her head. "No Tsubomi. You don't understand." she said, wanting to pull herself away, but Tsubomi kept her grip on Yaya tight. "I know I don't. I don't understand why my heart is beating so fast. I don't understand why I am sweating, or why I feel like running away when the only thing I want to do, right now, is stay here with you. I don't understand why you look so sad, I don't know how to ask. I don't know what I can do to fix what happened in the past. I don't know how to make it better for you right now. I only know one thing right now, besides how nervous I am! I know that I don't want to see you suffer, see you cry! I only want to see you happy Yaya! I will do anything I can to make that happen!" Tsubomi pulled Yaya closer, causing Yaya to lose her grip on the bead in her hand and catch herself onto Tsubomi.

In that moment of warmth, of bravery, Tsubomi had planted a seed in Yaya's heart. The sorrows of what she had done, and what she still felt towards Hikari rippled. The fantasies, lustful and sweet, of a world where Hikari was hers, shuddered like TV static and behind it, was another future, and unseen future. A future of her playing hand in hand with a pink haired girl, being tugged forward by a sweater-covered hand, A world where even in her worst moments, she could feel an embrace like this again. A gentle embrace that belonged to her, that was not given by somebody she felt inferior to, or belonged on a person greater than her. She did not need to compete for the affection of Tsubomi, and that Tsubomi was the cure for her aching heart all along. She was short, young and ignorant of the workings of heart-break and desire, but maybe that was a good thing. She could begin again, with Tsubomi by her side. A fresh start. She closed her aching eyes, and absorbed all of the tenderness Tsubomi silently offered, saying no more than what she had exclaimed.

As they shared an eternity of loving silence between them, and the sun seemed to expose the two girls, Tsubomi fidgeted. "Something is really cold." Yaya shifted, and pulled the black etoile necklace from her neck. She clutched it in her hand, unseen by Tsubomi, and readied herself to toss it away, to throw it into the expanses of woods over the bushes, but she hesitated. Something unknown and dark flooded her heart, challenging the new hope that laid itself inside of Yaya. A flash of an image erupted in her head, a subliminal assault that made her hesitate. "I forgive you, Yaya-sama." It was the words of Hikari, whispering softly as she laid naked against Yaya's chest, dreaming and full of love as her eyes twinkled with joy. Yaya felt the twinge of desire pump through her blood again, and begin to consume her, as it did last time. "Just throw it away." beckoned a voice inside her, as she felt the shudder-inducing touch of the relic at her neck. "Listen to Tsubomi's words, you don't need to go down that dark path." It beseeched, trying to get her to listen to reason.

Yaya grabbed the necklace, and quietly pulled it from her neck, hiding it in her pocket. "No, I can't. Not yet." she spoke to the voices inside of her. She blinked slowly, letting the righteous and sane voices of dissent in her heart to be drowned out. The happy glow in her eyes returned, and they became full of life again, breaking away from the private darkness of her mind, and brought back into the world where her and Tsubomi stood. There she stood, her burst of courage and change vanishing, as her eyes widened, and she stepped back. Twirling her fingers around each other and stuttering. "...But yeah, and stuff! Things...stuff." she choked out, losing all of her tact and returning to her shyness. Yaya nodded, patting her on the head. "That's a good Tsubomi, getting all brave all of the sudden. Do you want to go out and grab something to eat? I'm hungry."

She bloomed red and nodded so fast she sent static through her hair against Yaya's hand. "Yup! lets go!" she scurried away shyly, out of view towards the pathway. As she sprinted ahead towards the path, something dark caught her eye, and something alluring caught her ear. "Tsubomi-chan..." A shade of black flashed in her view and then vanished, with monstrous wings, sultry cleavage and lustful lips, eyes callous and cruel, with an aura of savagery that sent panic and danger throughout her body. She jerked her head towards the church doors where the black figure had stood, but nothing was there. Tsubomi scratched her head, but continued on her way when Yaya stepped onto the pathway with her, and they continued away from the church and Yaya's private spot.

Unseen to the both of them, Remi stared at Tsubomi with a newfound lust she had never felt before. She measured her, absorbing the smell of her hair and skin, and the sight of her cuteness. Cuteness to pollute, and defile. Remi grinned to herself as Yaya and Tsubomi got acquainted over dinner, laughing and making jokes together. She knew who she desired as her payment, as her sacrifice. She couldn't wait to see the look on Tsubomi's face, when Yaya eventually betrays her. Her tears would taste like heaven.

* * *

Author's Note: Nobody cares about Strawberry Panic. This fandom is dead. No reviews, no favorites, no views. I regret not publishing this sooner, when the Yuri fervor was at it's peak. I hope that someday, people come back, and see this little fic I pushed my hours into, and can draw something nice from it. That they enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I will fight my cynicism for now. Let's press on.


	3. Chapter 3

Maaya was there with Kasuza in the infirmary. Sitting next to her in all of her noble, soft skinned glory. Her sunfire hair glistening in the light pouring through the windows. "I was scared you wouldn't wake up." Maaya said.

"Scared? For me? How could anything scare you, maaya-chan? Oh!" Kasuza clinched as she let slip an honorific, showing affection to Maaya that Kasuza did not feel she was worthy of doing. She clutched her mouth shut.

"Don't worry, Kazu-san, it's fine." She smiled, as Maaya leaned down and hugged her.

"Why would you be scared for me of all people? I thought you never wanted to see me again."

This was true. Maaya did not want to see Kasuza ever again. Maaya's lover had passed away awhile ago, while she was torn away at a school she couldn't leave, unable to even attend the funeral. The misery in Maaya's eyes made Kasuza's heart rage, it made her want to do anything she could to make their glow happy again, and maybe, be the new one she loved, the new girl that made her heart beat.

It did not end well, and instead of helping Maaya recover and heal with a touch and a kiss, she repelled her, and did so much irreparable damage to their future and their friendship, that Maaya actually would flinch when Kasuza would get too close. Kasuza chose the wrong time, and her failure assured they could never be together. In any normal circumstances, even a falsely happy smile was a treat for her. Now, she had the girl of her dreams tending to her personally in the infirmary.

"I didn't. You hurt me when you did what you did...touching me. Kissing me. Asking me to just move on with you, when I still hurt so much, when I still missed..." Maaya couldn't mention the name, it hurt to mention the name. Kasuza looked down in shame. "...but it's not like that anymore." Maaya smiled, and lifted up Kasuza's weather-torn hair and guilty eyes, red still with the dread and regret she wore. "I saw her yesterday. She came to me, and told me you were suffering, you were alone. That you needed my help." Wait, she saw Remi? Kasuza felt another insidious surge hit her, otherworldly and frightening. "Saw who?"

"I saw Airi. She came to me like an angel, and freed my heart. She helped me move on from her, so I could share my life with somebody else...to share my life with you." A hand wrapped around Kasuza's hand, and filled it with warmth. "Kasuza, can I be yours?" Kasuza arched up from her infirmary bed, and raised an eyebrow out of confusion. It's really happening. What should she do in this moment?

"Only if I can be yours." Kasuza mumbled shyly. The line she had practiced so long ago in the loneliness of the bathroom stalls, at night when Emi was sleeping, the perfect line rehearsed and edited for weeks, stumbled on her tongue and something quiet emerged instead. "I mean, I've been-" before Kasuza could even try to recover from her romantic stumble, Maaya had closed the distance between them and sealed a kiss, wrapping her arms around Kasuza's shoulders, and leaning her body weight towards the girl. As they traded kisses back and forth, and Kasuza felt her new world fully realized and her happily ever after finally being born, she thanked Remi for all she had done.

* * *

The words of Tsubomi. "We can have both of our special things together." The words of Remi. "I can make Hikari love you." Both tugged at the back of her mind as the world around her seemed to melt away. "Make her love me? What ridiculous notion is that?" Yaya thought to herself. "I am no helpless little girl. I know how to win girls hearts, I don't need some black magic or demon's pendant to win the girl I want to be with." Yaya imagined grabbing the pendant that Remi gave her, and then dropping it on the ground in front of her. "I don't need your trash, demon. I'm going to win Hikari's heart on my own."

Yaya laid upon her bed staring at the ceiling tonight, expressions cycling from intense stares to dreamy longing looks. While Hikari laid on her own bed across the room, her interest piqued. "I think I know what I could do as Etoile." Hikari's sweet voice rang. Yaya broke from her fantasy.

"What's that?"

"I could install a movie screen on our ceiling. We could watch movies on it. So many of my friends stare at the ceiling like you do, I thought that maybe if they had something funny to watch they wouldn't look so sad." Hikari smiled, hoping the warmth of her expression would break her friend from her seeming gloom.

"I look sad?" Hikari quickly forced a smile. "Oh no, i'm not sad over anything. I'm just thinking a lot."

"Oh? About what Yaya-san?"

Yaya replayed the events in her head. She replayed Tsubomi's new metamorphosis in her mind. The moment she broke out of the old girl she used to be.

"I think Tsubomi likes me." Yaya confessed. Saying it aloud almost made her smile. Hikari's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, she does? Are you sure? I could have sworn she liked me too. Kind of like how you like me! Oh-" Hikari cut herself off. "Used to like me."

The words "used to like" didn't connect to Yaya's heart, they didn't translate at all. She continued nonetheless. "Yeah, she likes me likes me." Hikari clapped her hands softly, sitting up in bed then bouncing out, leaping across the two beds and landing onto Yaya's.

"You have a crush Yaya! Eee!" Hikari squee'd in delight as she shook Yaya, sending Yaya's head rolling back and forth. "Why are you so excited all of the sudden? I've had crushes before." She straightened her head, making a puff of air leave her mouth and turning her head to the side. "It's so cute though! You're her senpai! It's just like in the light novels we used to read. You'll have a magical stroll through the sakura petals, arm crossed with another arm, your hair pinned and decorated with the most beautiful pins and flowers, her by your side in a kimono blushing uncontrollably while you sweep her off her feet, confessing to her "Oh my lady, how I have longed for this day to come." and she would reach her arm out while you kissed it, sliding a beautiful diamond ring upon it, and-"

"Whoa whoa whoa Hikari calm down! I said she had a crush on me! I'm not going to get married or anything! Sheesh!" Hikari had squeezed Yaya's shoulders in her excitement so much you could see the imprints of her fingers fill back up with blood. "But it's adorable though." She returned to her shy self, twiddling her fingers.

"So...do you like her back?" Hikari said.

Yaya sat there, her every expression being measured and studied by her cute room mate.

"I guess so...maybe. I don't like her as much as I like you though." Oh no! She didn't mean to say that aloud. She kept her panic sealed away, and instead shrugged, smiling as friendly as possible. Hikari's expression shuddered a bit, but returned to her previous expression of calm. It was enough of a flicker for Yaya to feel a pain from seeing it though.

"Uh, liked, not like, right Yaya?" Hikari smiled, hoping to hear the former and not the latter. Yaya shook her head. "No, like. I didn't stop liking you Hikari. I just put the feelings away, because-" "No, Yaya." Hikari kneeled up from Yaya's bed, stepping off and returning to her side of the room cautiously. Seeing that hurt Yaya. "I have a girlfriend now. I am in love with Amane."

"I know that! I didn't mean to imply anything bad, I just needed to tell you. I still like you Hikari." Hikari shook her head, a sliver of discomfort becoming visible as she pulled the blankets over her chest. "So you lied to me about wanting to be friends with Amane?"

"No! I do like being her friend. I like being both of your friends! It's just I can't get rid of these feelings, Hikari. What am I supposed to do, just up and decide I don't like you anymore!? Could YOU just stop loving Amane whenever you wanted!?" Yaya realized at this point, that she had started to yell a bit, and calmed her voice.

"No, I couldn't stop loving Amane...but you could stop liking me. You only like me for my body, Yaya-chan." she whispered, shrinking down and covering her face in her blankets.

"No! I don't! I don't! How could you say such a thing? We've been room mates for so long. I like you more than that!"

"Yaya, please stop. I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"But I do! I've held it in for a month now! Every day I just sit there watching her have EVERYTHING I ever wanted, seeing you look at her with such loving eyes and hug her, and I just sit here with nobody."

Hikari narrowed her eyes and shouted. "Yaya stop it! Stop it! This is not how you should treat friends! What you did to me when you confessed to me...that was wrong! I wouldn't have done that to you!"

Yaya narrowed her eyebrows, furling her nose and clinching her fingers into a fist. "Am I supposed to feel guilty about that forever!? I regret doing that EVERY SINGLE DAY! I wish every night I could take it back, but every time you flinch from me, when you cover your chest, when you turn your back to me, I feel even more disgusting than I already am. Of course you would choose Amane over me. The rich skilled popular Amane versus me, some huge breasted hentai freak from a nobody family with no money! How could I ever even be worth your affections, your attention? I'm worthless!"

"Yaya! No!" Hikari rose from her bed, ripping the blanket from her body and stepping over to Yaya as she felt her emotions blaze out of control. "You are not worthless, I'm sorry! I didn't know I was hurting you. I was just scared, but that was wrong." Hikari lifted Yaya's chin, on the verge of tears but filled with such a self-loathing that it was uncharacteristic. It was alien to the confident and elegant girl that she spent so much time around.

"I'm sorry for hurting your feelings, being afraid of you for no reason." Hikari hugged Yaya, and the hardness inside Yaya began to slowly crack. "I'm sorry, that I still love you." whimpered Yaya. In this moment, she pulled her arms out, and pushed Hikari aside. "I can't touch you anymore. I am not worthy. Not a hug, not even a handshake. I'm filthy." Yaya pulled from Hikari's grip and ran out of her door.

Barefoot, she ran down the hallway in the dark, fleeing from the dormitory and bursting through the front doors of the dormitory. She fled to the grassy ground, crossing the sidewalks and the trees, until she found where she wanted to be. She was outside of the church, her spot to the right where it always was. She dared to walk there, but her legs gave out at the steps. She fell upon the concrete and sat there on her hands and knees, her blood pulsing so hard it began to hurt her ears and the back of her eyes.

"I swear, I could earn her heart on my own. I could make her love me without anyone's help. I can get what I lost so long ago." She panted and repeated to herself, but eventually, the memories broke her. Every detail of her attempted advance on Hikari that ruined their future, that assured that Hikari's love would not flow to her. No, advance was too subtle of a world. Defilement, violation, rape.

"I am a molester, a rapist. I don't deserve love." She let her lips speak, her arms giving out. She fell to the concrete and landed upon its cold surface, slapping her skin and sending pain through her face and fore-arms, as she finally broke down, and cried. "Oh St. Miator, St. Lilim, St. Spica, Lord and Savior, what do I do?" she prayed towards the door, her trembling hands locked into a praying stance that could barely stay straight. The cold of the night poured through her body, biting her fingertips, her toes, her nipples and her lips, her breath barely warming her hands as she prayed in her nightgown. She felt even coming to such a beautiful building barely dressed and an emotional wreck was disrespectful. What a wreck, a shame..

"Please, somebody take this love from my heart, wipe my mind of her beautiful face. I want to forget Hikari forever. I don't deserve to know her. Please Lord, take my love of Hikari away." Yaya weeped at the locked doors, but the one that heard her was not St. Miator, or Lilim, Spica, or even God. It was something dark, that clicked across the cement in her high heels, her wicked wings stepping across grass and stone like the limbs of a spider, membranes and veins stretching back and forth as her seductive form cast a dirty aura around the pure building.

Yaya looked up in fear, covering her chest and shuddering as the succubus' shadow covered her. Remi grinned, her insidious eyes shining through the dark. "Don't worry, my dear child, I have heard your prayers, and I am here to comfort you."


	4. Chapter 4

Before Yaya could even mutter a prayer, a rebuttal, a call to her saints or her God, Remi closed the distance with inhuman speed. Her slender legs only brushed the concrete barely while the monstrous wings pushed her forward like a gigantic spider, impaling the ground and then rising Remi off the ground, fingers around Yaya's face. Yaya was suspended in the air helplessly while the disgusting seductress inspected her. She was in a vice-grip that sealed her mouth closed and hugged her skull to the point where it stung.

"Oh my sweet girl, don't do that to me. You summon me with your tears and your heartbreak, something so enticing I can barely control myself..." Remi squeezed her thighs together, a depraved smile and blush across her face. "...then you try and cast me away with your holy words? No. I don't think we're going to do that." As Remi inched towards her prey, her body weighing painfully beneath her neck, Yaya responded in a manner that caused Remi's perfect brows to rise in concern. Yaya swung her fist foward, slashing her nails at the demoness, before catching a lock of hair and pulling her entire weight into it.

Remi screamed, and her grip upon Yaya loosened just a bit, allowing her to move her mouth. Just enough to sink her teeth into the gloved hand, and break through the thin fabric, and into flesh. Another scream from the succubus fell upon Yaya's ears as Remi scrambled back, holding her hand in pain as the demonic wings draped across her, veiling her behind fleshy membranes. She whimpered to herself as Yaya stood to her feet, her back against the wall, spitting the strangely sugary blood from her mouth. Blood was not supposed to taste like this. It danced on her tongue, tingling and running through the nerves of her lips.

"I call upon the power of God to drive you away from this sacred place! I do not need you Remi! I do not want you! Begone!" Yaya was unfamiliar with any mantra or any prayer she could use for such an experience. How often does a school teach succubus repelling chants? Not very often, and in all honesty, never. Yaya tried her best with whatever her nervous brain could cook up. "Remi you are an abomination, and in the words of God I cast you from this place!" Yaya screamed again, but the demon hiding behind her wings stayed silent. Uncomfortably silent. Where Yaya expected white fire, a pillar of light, or a shadow below the demon, nothing appeared. Nothing except a small whimper.

Cream-colored fingers peeked past the wings, gently pushing them aside. Inside of the wings was not a succubus, dressed in an insidious dress with the look of lust and perversion. It was a sweet look, guilty and sad, bright blue eyes looking towards Yaya and casting such an overwhelming desire to comfort and protect on her that she had to step back, and take a breath. Remi had taken the form of Hikari once again.

"Yaya-san, why do you want to drive me away? I'm sorry for yelling at you, for making you feel guilty..." she said, in a perfectly imitated rendition of Hikari's voice.

"No, this play isn't going to work on me, Remi! You are not Hikari!" Yaya hesitated, leaning against the church doors.

The Remi Hikari sniffled, looking down at the ground pitifully. "But Yaya, there's something I need to tell you, that I've been holding back for so long...I need you, Yaya." The Remi Hikari sniffled to herself, locking her eyes with the confused Yaya before her.

"I really do. I have always wanted you, not Amane. I realized I could never truly love Amane, like I loved you. I want to be your princess, your partner in crime, your ally, your best friend, your wife! Living in a world where I don't belong to you, is a world I don't want to be in, so please, Yaya! Don't push me away!"

Yaya's heart tugged at every sound that Hikari made. Everything she had ever wanted to hear the real Hikari say, was pouring from the mouth of this imitation, and every cell, every iota of emotion in her body was urging Yaya to move forward, and accept this Hikari before her. To accept Hikari would mean to have everything she ever wanted. To satisfy this scar in her heart that has only been growing since the day she lost her. Her logical side screamed and clawed at the inside of her mind though, that these words that Hikari were saying, were so sweet and perfect, that they were poisonous. Remi wasn't trying to bewitch or control her at all, she was doing something worse.

Hikari let tears pour from her eyes, and she looked to the ground, turning away. "But, you are right Yaya-san...I am not the real Hikari, and never will be...you will never hear her utter these words to you, for the rest of your life. You will die before you ever hear Hikari say she loves you."

As the Hikari vanished and ceased to be, in her place Remi rose again, grinning as Yaya collapsed to her knees and shook. Remi chuckled to herself, and bowed, congratulating herself on her performance, as Yaya curled her fingers so tight against the concrete steps that her fingernails started to chip, and bleed.

"What was any of this all for? Why are you doing this to me?" sobbed Yaya, as she gritted her teeth and grabbed her own head, pulling upon her hair so tightly that it began to tear free.

"To remind you of reality, my dear girl. I admire your attempts to bypass my deal, try to take the world you want into your own hands, and earn love on your own terms. However, I think it's time you heard the truth." Remi inched closer and knelt before the destroyed Yaya, as she struggled to control her rage and her self-loathing. Remi prepared her next sentence, with as much cruelty and sharpness as possible etched into her words.

"Hikari, will NEVER, love you."

Tsubomi stirred in her sleep, and the invasive wrongness of the night broke her from her sleep completely. She popped out of her bed, making sure to step silently. She'd rather not awake her room mates again. Tsubomi tip-toed towards the desk closest to her bed, and reached for something tucked away in the drawers. She grinned and pulled out her diary.

"Good, nobody was trying to dig in it again." Tsubomi thought to herself, as she pulled the button strap that kept it sealed, and let the clean pages fold open. Tsubomi read the last page she had written, and blushed after reading it over again. She shyly flipped the page over and pressed it down with her palm. The ordeal she had with Yaya was so fresh in her mind just thinking about it made her heart beat rapidly. She took a breath, and pulled out her pen.

"Another night of not sleeping again. Last night I got this feeling too. Like something terrible is going on, somebody watching me. Normally, I would've fixated on it all night, but something else has been on my mind."

Rapid heartbeats thrummed though her fingers and jitters sent small scribbles along the diary's page.

"Yes, it was about I wrote about last time. The thing I did with Yaya. I told her I liked her, I think? I don't remember. I hope she likes me too. I hope there's something I can do for her. She's looked so tired recently. So hurt. I wish there was something I could do to help her smile again."

Tsubomi hesitated on her last sentence, and with a long stroke, crossed it out.

"I am going to do something to help her smile again. Her smile is beautiful, and I want to see it all the time. I want to be the reason she smiles."

Yaya saw it all happen. With a single touch, Remi flooded Yaya's mind with the night that Amane and Hikari finally became one, when their love hit it's limit, and they ran each other's hands across each other's faces, kissing, nibbling lips, pulling hair and collapsing to the ground, making love for the first time. It was something beautiful, filling and swelling the girl's hearts with unbridled passion that made their toes curl, and their eyes twinkle. They laid together, Hikari being embraced into her lover's chest as she sank into a new heaven of her own. Yaya felt wrong watching the memory unfold, something so sacred and cherished did not belong in her own mind, and seeing the sight of Hikari in the arms of her lover sent such pain through her body that she wanted to die right then and there. Remi showed her this memory solely to break her heart, and it succeeded.

Yaya's skin was cold and clammy, and she could see her breath in the night's crisp air. She laid there so utterly destroyed she couldn't even feel her fingers throb anymore. Her fingernails bent off of their flesh didn't even bother her. As she felt herself rocking in place, she fell, and was summarily caught by the hands of the very person she hated most.

She laid limp against Remi's grasp, powerless and broken, just wishing she would die than have to put up with this world anymore.

"Remi...is there something wrong with me? Am I not pretty?" she pleaded weakly to the succubus next to her. Remi extended a wing and coiled it around Yaya, pushing her closer so Remi could properly wrap her hand around the girl's waist.

"Oh no, dear Yaya. You are beautiful, beyond a doubt." Remi placed her finger on Yaya's chin, rising it up so she could peer into her golden eyes, so sick with abuse and suffering that she would surrender to anything Remi said. She knew this from experience, she knew this from her time in the darkness. When your dreams are destroyed, you will obey anyone you believe can help them come back to life.

"Any girl would be lucky to have you. You see, I was once like you. Before I became what I am today, before Astraea Hill adopted Two Etoiles, there was only one. I was the greatest Etoile of this school, and I ruled this place alone, Everyone respected me, and loved me...except for one. The only person that mattered." Remi coiled her hand closer to Yaya, and Yaya leaned in, absorbing Remi's warmth, the wings blanketing her from the cold of the night air.

"I loved somebody I could never have, and rather than accepting it, rather than letting the world decide what I deserved for me, I took destiny into my own hands." Remi reached to Yaya's neck, pulling out the black etoile pendant that laid there. "I went to the darkest edges of the world, trying to find my answer, trying to figure out what I could do, to make the angel of my dreams fall in love with me, when every natural, every holy way, closed its doors to me. I've made this deal before to many girls like you, and each time, it has made their dream worlds real. I can help you, Yaya."

Yaya looked into Remi's eyes with a spark of hope, a spark that bled through the foggy lifeless haze that once clouded them. The cloudy haze that was only broken by one other person, Tsubomi. "How can I trust you? How do I know...you won't just betray me?" Yaya said in fear.

"Because, even though I adore suffering, and heart-break, I need your happily ever after, to get my own. You're a beautiful girl, Yaya, you'd make a wonderful bride for Hikari." Remi stood up, guiding Yaya back up to her feet, her fingers tightly coiled with her own. "I only ask for one thing, Yaya, in exchange for your happily ever after." Remi pulled Yaya close enough to hear her heart-beat, their chests pressed together and their mouths inches away from each other's ears. "What do you want, Remi?"

Remi grinned, running her hand against Yaya's breast and whispering deep and quiet. "I want you to offer your friend as a sacrifice to my forest. That beautiful girl with the rose-colored hair. Offer her to me in my forest, and Hikari will love you forever." Yaya's repulsion for the creature that stood before her was nearly non-existent. The once proud and defiant girl that would've sooner stabbed the demon with her own wing bones than let her be touched, was blushing and relaxing in the arms of this monster as if it was Hikari herself.

"...Tsubomi? You want me to sacrifice her?" The mere mention of Tsubomi's name sent a surge of humanity back into Yaya, as the memories of earlier that day came back. "No, I can't do that to her, she's innocent. Is there something else I could do?" She pleaded. Remi laughed, and shook her head. "No, Yaya, there isn't. Your dear Tsubomi is a fresh flower, an untouched canvas. She is young and vibrant, and to be completely honest, irresistible. More irresistible than you, Then again, when did you start caring about her at all? Isn't she just a band-aid you're using to distract yourself from Hikari?" Yaya stayed silent and lowered her head, breaking eye contact with Remi.

"Don't pretend as if she truly means anything to you. You are shallow and manipulative, self serving. Just like me. Why half-ass your evil selfish ways, when you can get everything you want, by seeing your ambition through completely? If you don't want Hikari, then just give me back my pendant, I'll find somebody else who wants their dreams to come true. I know a cute azure haired girl who's heartbreak I can sense all the way from here, who would love to take this offer." Remi held out her hand. "Don't worry, it's fine to back out now, I'll even leave you alone from now on. But just so you know, if you go crying in the night again, calling my name, I won't be coming back. So what's it gonna be? Give up the life of somebody you don't even care about, to live happily ever after, or go back to your dorm room and face the girl you love that will never love you back?"

Yaya sat there for a long time, letting the thoughts of Tsubomi float through her head. The words she said that touched her heart, and gave her hope in the moments she felt were impossibly alone. When in any other situation, Yaya was convinced that there was no point to losing her beloved, until the saints seemed to deliver her somebody who empathized with her, and wanted to help her heal, help her find love again. With Tsubomi, she could begin again. Yaya rose her head, and met Remi eye-to-eye, the life in her eyes dancing with a darkness never before seen. A new heartlessness.

"Okay, Remi, you have a deal. I will offer Tsubomi to you as a sacrifice."

A/N: Forgive me about the quality of the submission of the last chapter, where it had my formatting code splattered everywhere. I use Evernote, and didn't know it copied WYSIWYG formatting over. I decided not to quit writing this.


	5. Chapter 5

Yaya scanned the doors to her dormitory, looking to see if anyone was keeping guard there. "All I have to do is find Tsubomi. That's basically it right? Just bring her to the forest." She stayed away from the lights of the main path, getting the forboding feeling she was being watched. However, the terror of eyes did not link her to images of dark horrors or sultry figures, with their demon wings and thick thighs, but of something scarier.

Something bright and white, shaking their heads in disappointment, with bright wings. The creeping shame and dishonor of commiting such a horrible crime, to get what she wanted. She was well beyond shame now though, as her old self sunk deep into a pit behind her mind. Oh please, St. Miator. St. Lilim. St. Spica. I couldn't care what any of you nobodies did. I defy your holy righteous world and seek my own.

"I don't care what I have to do, to get what I want. You'll be mine, Hikari. Your body, your soul, your tender skin and touch. I can't stand it anymore. I want you so much it burns...Hikari..."

"Umm...care to run that by me again?" said a surprised voice, a flashlight running across Yaya's body. It was Amane, and she had caught Yaya in the middle of an obsessive mantra about her girlfriend.

Yaya's eyes shined in the beam ominously. Like the eyes of spiders in the grass when a flashlight is swept across a field. It set Amane on edge. "...Me and Hikari came out here to look for you. You're not doing well, Yaya. You should come back."

"Why do you even care? Why are you pretending to be my friend? If you really wanna help me right now just bring Tsubomi to me." She muttered coldly. As Yaya attempted to storm past her, Amane stepped forward, and placed her hands on Yaya's shoulders, holding her face to face.

"Hikari told me everything, Yaya, but I am not mad. I'm sorry that things did not work out for you, but I thought Nagisa and the others had helped you? Helped you eventually heal from all of that. Why has this lust suddenly overcome you to the point of delirium? You aren't even yourself right now. You're a lustful beast, angry and insatiable. You're hurt, and I understand that."

Yaya felt her body shake, something like her old self struggling to escape. The words floated into her head, begging to be spoken by her lips but instead dancing on her tongue, unsaid. "I'm sorry Amane, I know this isn't me. I know what I want to do is wrong. I shouldn't covet Hikari like this. You are both my friends, and I need your help...please help me."

Those words never left her mouth, and instantly ceased to be as the lust-obsessed shell of Yaya clinched her fists. "Go to hell, Amane."

"What is wrong with you? There's no way you can be the real Yaya."

"What's wrong, not used to being disrespected, my wonderful prince? Please, you would've been better off becoming Mr. Shizuma than laying your eyes on my girl. Go away and never come back. I despise your existence completely!" As Yaya struggled to break past Amane, she caught the sight of something black, and they both stopped as it dangled out for all to see.

Amane eyed the pendant dangling at her neck. "Where did you get that, Yaya?"

Yaya turned away, a bead of sweat betraying her cool demeanor. "I found it by the side of the lake, it must have been an old etoile pendant, lost in the mud, so they made new ones."

"Stop lying to me, Yaya. We both know where you got that pendant."

How could she know? No, there was no way she knew. She had to be confused. There's no way that perfect little Amane could possibly have met her too. Yaya tried to keep her panic hidden, pushing past Amane one more time, before she was tightly grabbed and kept in place. Amane was very serious.

"Remi can't be trusted, Yaya. She's evil."

Yaya erupted in surprise, eyes widened. "How do you know about her!? Did she come to you too?!"

Amane attempted to calm Yaya, approaching her slowly. "It's going to be okay Yaya, I won't tell anyone. I can help you."

The darkened sparks inside of Yaya's mind began to pour through, and she could hear a faint buzzing in her head. It all started to click together. Amane being worshiped by her peers. Finding love with her Hikari. Becoming Etoile.

"It never made sense to me why the most popular girl in school next to Shizuma herself, would spend so much of her free time alone, tucked away when she would've been basking in the love and praise of others. You needed that private time to consult with her. To be with Remi!" Yaya screamed this, eyebrows flared and eyes sharp and hateful. Completely uncharacteristic to the point where it made Amane scared.

"Yaya, you're not yourself right now! Listen to me, it's the pendant. You need to get rid of it, and come with me to the chapel. We need to-"

"That was why Hikari could never love me, isn't it!? because you already made the deal...because you made a pact with that demon, to make Hikari all yours, to enslave her. It wasn't my fault at all..." Yaya began to laugh, and she coiled her hands into fists. "Who did you kill, huh? I don't remember any girls going missing, no tragedies. Remi must have erased all of our memories of the girl you killed. That must be it. You're a killer, Amane. Killer, Killer Killer KILLER KILLER KILLER!"

Yaya was screaming like a lunatic, her teeth clenched and pupils so tight that the whites of her eyes glowed in the flashlight. "No! Yaya! Stop! I never took the deal!" Amane cried out as she reached out to Yaya, attempting to quickly rip the pendant from her neck and let some of the old Yaya return. As she reached for it, Yaya snagged her hand, embedding her fingernails into Amane's hand. She coiled them deep, and they dug in, breaking flesh. Amane winced as she knelt downwards in pain.

"Liar. Thief. Murderer...I know of your sins. You were keeping the girl I loved the most away from me! You sent another girl to her death so you could be the goddess of the school!"

"Yaya, you have got to believe me, I never took the deal! I threw the pendant in that lake..." Yaya tightened her grip and sent Amane to her knees. "Liar! Treacherous worthless liar Amane! I'm taking my beloved back from you. I'm going to get her back even if I have to kill you. I'll kill you all if I have to! Whatever Remi wants she will get!"

Yaya climbed ontop of Amane, pinning her down and grabbing her by the throat. Despite Amane's much stronger arms and taller body, Yaya's insane fervor left her helpless to fight back. She gazed at Yaya struggling to speak, terrified of her life.

"I'm not going to let you stop me! Hikari is mine!" Yaya clutched her fist as tight as she could, and swung, hitting Amane in the face. The pain she inflicted sent joy through out her body. It felt alien and wrong, but that wrongness was snuffed out by satisfaction. She screamed and swung again, and again, each punch urging her to punch even harder, to just push a little further. This stupid girl made her feel worthless. She had dealt with the demon and made it impossible to have her love. She was so pathetic that she had to take Remi's deal to make herself earn love, to become popular.

"Stop! Yaya!" screamed a familiar voice, too distant and too clouded out to register in her hate-filled mind. Smack. Smack. She grinned and panted as she sent her fist into Amane's face repeatedly, who was crying out like a little girl now, her arms battered and trying their best to protect her face. "Yaya leave Amane alone!" screamed Hikari, as Yaya felt a strike to the back of her head, and Yaya fell off of Amane.

Hikari rushed over and embraced her girlfriend, reduced to a shuddering, gasping mess. She was crying. Hikari had never once heard Amane cry, and here she was, weeping in her arms, her face damaged and her nose bleeding. Instantly, the gentle Hikari snapped on Yaya.

"Why did you attack Amane!? She went out looking for you! She was concerned too!"

Yaya shook her head in disbelief and in hurt. "Don't take her side, Hikari...you don't actually love her! It's a curse! a hex!" Yaya pleaded to Hikari in her deranged state, but Hikari shook her head in disbelief.

"Shut up, Yaya! You psychopath! How could you do this to one of our friends!? Do you hate her so much for being my girlfriend that you believe that she put a curse on me to make me love her?"

As Amane shuddered in Hikari's arms and cried, her blood boiled even more. "No, I should have never trusted you at all. You don't belong in this school, you're crazed and obsessed and speaking nonsense! I wish I had never met you...I'm calling the headmothers before you hurt somebody else!"

Yaya rushed upwards and ran over to the two girls, trying to stop them. "No! Hikari, you got to believe me! There's-"

Slap.

A single motion from Hikari's hand sent shudders of pain and disbelief through out her body. It was in this moment, she realized how truly hopeless the situation had become, and how deep of a hole she had dug.

"I have fallen so far away from my old life...there's no turning back, is there?" Before she slipped into her own sadness, the darkness overtook her once again. Flashes of Hikari moaning as Amane climbed atop her.

Yaya gritted her teeth, her blood beginning to boil.

The images came once again. Hikari kissing her disrobed lover, as their arms explore each other. Her eyes shining and teary and filled with love. Love for somebody who wasn't her.

Yaya's lungs began to burn and her skin itched, she began to feel a beast fight inside her heart, her rib cage feeling too tight.

She saw the image of Hikari's eyes closing, and her moaning out Amane's name in their passionate moment, reaching the climax and forever bonding the two girls together. "Amane I love you so much..."

Yaya exploded into a mind-sickened rage, and she tore herself away from the two girls before them, her mortified mind set on only one thing, finding her sacrifice, and ending this horrible game. A game where the only one who lost was her.

She fled into the dormitory panting, unsteady. "Tsubomi!? Tsubomi!" She called out, leaning against the railings of the steps, climbing up the stairs on all fours. She could barely control her own body, so overwhelmed with emotion, with an enigmatic of lust-drunken stupor that made her jitter.

"Tsubomi."

A dark whisper swept the rose-haired girls' ears. Pouring through the darkness of the halls. Tsubomi heard it, nervous. She heard the screaming and crying outside, and was wary of the voice. The familiar voice.

A voice pained and struggling to sound like itself, confused and lost. The voice of the girl she loved.

"Yaya?"

Yaya appeared in the shadows of the hallways, holding her chest, shaking her head. Her hair was a mess, her eyes crazed, her lips quivering.

"Tsubomi, I need your help...something terrible is happening to me..."

Tsubomi tip-toed towards her senpai, nervous.

"Yes...I can try to help you...what's wrong?"

Yaya shook her head, taking a deep breath in. "I can't tell you here...I don't have much time. You have to come with me to the forest. There's something really important you need to know."

Tsubomi stood before Yaya, concerned and suspicious. "What is so important that you can't tell me here? now?"

Yaya's hand lashed out and grabbed onto Tsubomi's, reeling her in and letting her peep in surprise.

Yaya began to whisper in her ear. "There is something evil going on here, and I need to get you away from it. It's not safe here."

Tsubomi shook her head in disbelief, but stayed silent. "You got the feelings too, right? that there were darker things than the seven mysteries going on at this school, right? That is because there is. There is something out there, and I need to protect you from it. You need to come with me, right now!"

Tsubomi hesitated, still scared and unsure. "Yaya are you sure? You don't sound alright at all."

Yaya reassured her, in a way that Remi had taught her. Yaya slowly ran her finger across Tsubomi's chin, lifting her head up so that they could gaze into each other's eyes. She could feel Tsubomi lock up, as Yaya inched in, just mere centimeters from her lips. "Tsubomi...I really care about you, and don't want you getting hurt...please, come with me..." She softened her eyes, lowering her eyelids and letting her eyebrows relax, her expression captivating Tsubomi's virgin heart and making her yearn subconsciously for a kiss. Yaya was insanely close, expressing a side she had never experienced.

"...Yes Yaya-chan, I'll come with you..." she said, as Yaya clamped her hand on Tsubomi's and led her towards the emergency staircase. "We need to get to the forest, we will be safe there." Yaya said reassuringly, rushing the girl as she looked over her shoulder, ducking out of the way of the headmother's flashlights. Amane and Hikari must have warned them, they would be looking for her. If Amane was still able to talk, she might have told them everything.

She was running out of time, if she didn't hurry, it might be too late to offer Tsubomi to Remi. No, she wouldn't give up, not when she has come this far, when she had already gone so far. She would offer sacrifice. She would make Hikari fall in love with her. She would leave Amane behind, and nobody would know Tsubomi existed at all. She would take what was rightfully hers, even if she was expelled from Astraea Hill, and have to return to her old life. No, she would aim for a new life. She would help Remi even more. Why stop at one girl, after all?

Yaya clasped her hand around her kouhai's, and they fled fast into the forest.


	6. Chapter 6

Almost a decade ago, before an altar in a sanctuary of marble and oak, cloth covered stands and pews lined with frightened girls, was a raven-haired girl, dressed in a torn school girl garb from a time before the three houses. Wicked black wings stretched from her flesh and rested uselessly upon the steps behind her.

Before the winged girl stood a headmother, just as shocked as the girls who sat behind her. "Remi, what have you done to yourself?" were the only words the old woman spoke, as she backed away. "My dear headmother, I only did what was necessary, and nothing more! Please hear my message before you cast me out..." The demonic wings that dragged behind her were newly born, the muscles pulsing inside, veins unhidden and coursing with her blood. They left a sweaty residue behind on the floor as they pulled across the floor. Remi's skin was pale from the blood they drunk, and across her neck sat a pearly stone, radiant and prismatic, the first etoile necklace that was ever wrought. It was wrought especially for her, the girl who would unite the three dorms.

"What would even constitute as necesary in this situation, Remi!? You were missing for almost a week, no search parties could find you! We thought you fled the dormitories to be with your family, but even they did not know where you were...were you dragged into Hell!?" Many girls in the dormitories began to whisper prayers, some standing up to gaze at the wings behind her. Some in confusion, others in condemnation. Other girls however, gazed on at her completely bewitched, seeing something truly mind-consuming, beautiful. Remi was remade from her small, cute frame into something completely different. She was tall with flowing hair, no longer sharp and short. Her eyes were full of life, but held an animalistic glow that was no longer a dull brown, but gleamed different colors. What had she done to completely mutate into another creature?

"No, headmother. I left to find answers. I left to find out why this is the only place on Earth devoid of suffering and cruelty. To find out why Astraea Hill is the only place I've ever seen true love bloom, friendships flourish, bonds last eternally, and kisses feel like heaven. I came here because I wanted these things so much, but could never get them. I want to know why!"

"You never had to leave to get those answers! Astraea Hill has those qualities because we encourage them! Because we stay close to righteousness and virtue, and push temptation and greed away from our souls. If everyone else would just follow those ideals, then our Hill would be no different than any other school in the world. There is nothing magical to seek out!" Remi gritted her teeth to that answer. Nothing magical about living in a place where loving another girl is not looked down upon? Nothing magical about being defined as a person and not a dollar amount, or a monthly cost or a necessary expenditure? Nothing magical about how suddenly everything becomes beautiful and full of life the moment you step into the dorms? No, there was something unknown and magical about this place. Something heavenly she wished she could bring from the school into the outside world.

"However Remi, this does not answer the question me and every girl here have. Where did those atrocities upon your back come from!?"

The sanctuary went silent, the three lines of girls from the dormitories staring at her, waiting for their Etoile to answer. "They came from the outside world. All of the evil in the world has pooled on the bordering forests of Astraea Hill, and it has offered me something more than just wings."

"You consulted with evil..." the headmother said in despair, knowing what she had to do.

"Is it evil to gain the ability to earn the heart of the one you love? If so then yes. I let the depravity and lust of the entire world manifest inside of me. Everyone who died alone, and exists unloved. Dirty or clean, soft or violent, affairs or marriages, first loves or last desires. It sits on the edge waiting to wipe out this world, to take this jewel of beauty and destroy it. I let the world's lust turn me into what humanity finds most desirable."

Even in this form though, she felt helpless and undesirable. Her wings sagged to the ground and her hair sat dirty upon her head, unwashed from being lost in the woods for so long. Her uniform was tight to the point of chafing everything.

A girl stood up from the pews to her left, looking towards the demon-winged girl somberly. "Remi-sama, you are among friends. We can help you, we can save you. You are our Etoile. You brought us together in such terrible times, you helped us stop fighting. There is good in you! So please, let us help you back. Don't give into your inner darkness." Miator made Remi's heart surge with joy upon seeing her. the 2nd year girl was gazing upon her in her true form, and even though others whispered "demon", "monster", and "devil", she could sense no hatred or judgment from her. Miator was sweet and trusting like that, even as she saw Remi in her true form. However, this sweet girl's heart was devoted to God and God only. There was no force on earth that could help her win Miator's heart.

Not gorgeous eyes, not long legs, not sweet lips, or a cute smile, or a passionate kiss that she had rejected with a slap, or a soft hand against her breast that got her cast from the school. Remi could see them. The lines of eternal love, the lines that defined the chance of her winning Miator's heart, and calling her away from her devotion. Even with the body of a succubus that made girls in the pews pine for her involuntarily, Miator was unaffected, she was untouchably divine. Even as a demoness of temptation, Miator could not be tempted.

"Why save me, Miator? Just to bring me into a world where you do not love me?" As she stared at the one girl she could not have, the books upon the tables and the cloth they sat upon began to flap as if a terrible gust had been set on them, and as they flipped faster and faster, they caught on fire. The painted glass of the sanctuary began to shake, cracking in places as Remi's face turned red, raising her sickly wings into the air.

Girls began to scream and panic, running for the door. The headmother rushed to the back, chanting Psalm 103.

The cloth-covered stands were set ablaze. Remi's yearning heart beginning to break.

"Praise the lord, my soul, all my inmost being, praise his holy name."

Miator stood in front of Remi, unafraid and standing her ground.

"For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust."

Remi took the front of her uniform by her sharpened fingers and ripped it open, letting it fall down her body. "Please, just let me be yours. Just tell me you feel even a single iota for me?"

Miator shook her head in defiance. "Giving your heart to the wickedness of humanity will destroy everyone you touch. Your desires are destroying you, but you refuse to see that, Remi-chan...if you are set on burning this place down with everyone in it, I will stop you."

"Even as you ready to purge me from this beautiful place, I can't hate you. You look nothing like a devotee, wrinkled and bitter, hating everything that is different. You have to be an angel." Even as Remi stood naked and carnal in front of Miator, she remained unaffected, showing discomfort only once and returning to her stance. She closed her eyes and joined the headmother in chanting the psalm, as a weapon was prepared. One wrought of salt, water and prayer.

"Praise the lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word! Praise the lord, my Soul!"

Remi flicked her wings at Miator, readying to attack her mentally, to flush her resistance away and rape her mind of all hesitation. If she was to die, to be exorcised and freed of her only gift, she would at least drive the love of God out of her beloved's body. But not before something hotter than the flames that erupted in the sanctuary hit her skin, something wet sent her into an uncontrollable fit of craze, suffering and panic.

The searing pain in Amane's head had dissipated, and she found herself in Hikari's hold. "Hikari, where did Yaya go?"

"Dont worry, she's gone now. I am going to look for the headmothers, alert them that she's gone off the deep end before she hurts somebody else."

Somebody else. Didn't Yaya mention somebody else? Amane held her face in pain, wrecked painfully by her friend's psychotic rage. Something evil had flowed into that girl's hands, into her mind. She had been approached by the dark creature of the forest, that black heath that hid behind the beautiful groves of the campus.

It clicked finally, as she felt her lip bleed on the inside. Tsubomi. Yaya was asking where Tsubomi was. That was the girl Remi desired.

As Hikari readied herself to lift up and scurry off on her mission to find the headmothers, Amane stopped her. "No, Hikari. We need to go into the forest, now."

Hikari looked at her confused. "What, why?" Amane wobbled as she stood up, but seized her grip over Hikari's hand and began to move towards the grove near the dormitories. "By the time we alert them it will be too late. The headmothers aren't going to be able to stop a demon. "

Hikari's eyes widened, as she was pulled along, and they dashed together into the forest.

"Demon? what do you mean by demon? In this place? Are you sure you're not..." Hikari trailed off, realizing that Amane was collected mentally. She was not stuck too hard, not sent into a temporary craze.

"...Yes, Hikari. There was a demon in the forests outside of the school, and I had personally met her once. She is a succubus from long ago, and bears the black Etoile pendant."

"I...i recognized that pendant! I saw Yaya wearing it the night we went to the lake. She asked me if it was cursed." Hikari said in surprise. Amane pushed her over the brick wall and then lunged over it herself, falling upon the ground. Hikari pulled her up to her feet and they continued deeper into the night forest. "It is cursed. It magnifies the lust in your heart to ridiculous levels, to the point where you can't eat, can't sleep, and whittles away your chastity. It takes images of the one you love, but can't have, and assaults your mind with them until you hate yourself and feel like you want to die."

"You said you met her? What did she want?"

"Remi offers the ability to win the heart of your beloved in exchange for a human sacrifice." As Amane said that, Hikari stopped in her tracks.

"Hikari, what are you doing? We have to stop Yaya!" Hikari shook her head no. "I'm sorry, but why didn't you tell me any of this when we started going out? 'I met a demoness in the forest and had a cursed necklace' is kind of a very serious secret to keep! Did you take her deal!? Is that why I love you!? Is what Yaya telling me true!?"

Amane backed away, silent. Yaya grabbed Amane by the shoulders, yelling at her.

"What are you not telling me!?"

Tsubomi's toes cringed as her footstep pushed into a sharp stick, making her moan "ow!" and flinch closer to Yaya. In the darkness of the woods she couldn't find anywhere to step that didn't hurt. "Yaya-chan where are we going? Can you explain to me what is wrong?" she said, reaching down her leg and rubbing her pained foot. A couple more surprises from the dark and she might start seriously bleeding.

"Here." Yaya said, pulling off her own shoes and giving them to her kouhai, who happily slipped them on. "Sorry if they're too big. Didn't anticipate this in the short time we'd be together." Tsubomi straightened out her hair, and then pushed Yaya.

"What?"

"Can you tell me what evil thing is going on? And why you look like you're ready to fall over and die? Seriously senpai, you're a mess. You look like a psychopath...and your hands..." Tsubomi analyzed Yaya's hands in the dark, which had a few red smears on them.

"Yaya what were you doing!? That's blood!" Tsubomi started to panic.

"No, it's not what you think, Tsubomi, this is my blood! I was...punching a tree." she fake confessed, acting embarrassed and hiding her face behind her hands. As her hands covered her eyes, for a split second images of Hikari and Amane flashed through her mind. Of that night they were together once again. The sound of Remi's laugh tearing through the two moaning girls like thunder, the images vanishing the moment her hands were pulled away.

Pulled away by Tsubomi's hands, who comforted the aching fingers. "...Yaya, there was no evil thing, is there? You just wanted me alone, didn't you?" Tsubomi said, her eyebrows narrowed. "I don't know what I want anymore, Tsubomi...do I want you or do I want Hikari? Do I want my old world back or do I want a new one?" Yaya blurted that out, and she bit her tongue, shaking her head as the whites of her eyes showed in the dark.

"Want...me?" Tsubomi blushed and turned away, her fingers shaking at the thought. "Yaya-chan I'm in my sleep gown covered in wet leaves, in the middle of a forest with achy feet and twigs in my hair. This is the worst time to be trying to tell me you like me!" As she was ready to ask to be brought back to the dorms, Tsubomi saw the troubled expression on Yaya's face, as she gazed at nothing in an immeasurable amount of suffering.

"...Hey...I'm sorry. I don't mean to be mean." Tsubomi said, moving close to Yaya and resting her head against Yaya's chest. "What are you thinking about? It looks painful." Tsubomi asked. Yaya gritted her teeth, her arms shaking.

"Have you ever imagined the girl you love, making love to somebody else? Even if you didn't want to? That's all I see anymore. Tonight. Today. Yesterday. The day before. Seeing her so happy without me minute after minute. I try to think of anything else but I can't, it makes me want to puke, like I want to die. I'm obsessed with her, and I hate it. I feel like killing myself, and-"

Tsubomi interrupted Yaya as she let the insecurity pour out of her mouth. Tsubomi pulled her close, her cold cheeks shivering against Yaya's skin. "I don't want you to kill yourself Yaya. I never want to see you gone because of horrible thoughts, okay? I care about you, and wouldn't know what to do if I couldn't see you anymore..." Yaya shook her head. "You of all people should not be caring about me like this, Tsubomi. I treated you badly when you first got here. I thought you were annoying. I sometimes...still do." Her lips stayed still, when she wanted to tell her about her grisly fate. How she was going to trade her for the life she wanted...used to want. Why did she feel different all of the sudden? Why was she considering not going through?

"I like you too." Tsubomi replied, slightly muffled in Yaya's arm.

Yaya weakly laughed at the comment. "That wasn't my way of saying I like you. I...am usually more direct." Tsubomi blushed and nodded. "I know...the other first years told me. You kiss first, tell later." Yaya could feel the pain begin to go away, the barrage of lust-driven thoughts begin to pause, slow down, and fill with images of Tsubomi.

"Tsubomi, can I tell you something kind of embarrassing?" Yaya was nervously shivering all of the sudden. Tsubomi turned, looking up towards the gleaming eyes of Yaya. "Yes?" Tsubomi leaned in, intentionally inching her lips near Yaya's face. Yaya took notice to this, her hands reaching towards Tsubomi's hips. The images in her head were beginning to change, her breaths getting more calm and collected, as Yaya's heart began to beat a little more calmly.

"I sometimes think I love you." Yaya chuckled to herself a bit.

Tsubomi nervously looked up, her eyebrow raising. "Yaya? I don't get it...what's so embarassing about that?"

"I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be your first. I wondered if you would be my first...I honestly don't remember anymore!" Yaya began to chuckle to herself, releasing her grip on Tsubomi.

"Yaya?" Tsubomi weakly cried out as Yaya distanced herself from her.

"I can't think of any time I had sex. I don't remember what it feels like anymore! I don't remember any of my other crushes! not of classmates or celebrities! I don't remember my first grade love! My past! Anything! I can't even remember what I want to do with my life! The only thing that is in my GOD DAMN HEAD IS HER!"

The whites of Yaya's eyes stretched out and her pupil shrank, as she began to gasp for more air and her arms twitched. "HIKARI, Hikari, Hikari. Hikari! HIKARI! HIIIIKAAARIII!" Yaya screamed into the forest canopy, as she turned her head towards Tsubomi. She lunged at her and landed on her, the twigs and sharp rocks beneath stabbing into Tsubomi's barely covered back. She screamed and struggled, trying to push Yaya off of her.

"Yaya you're hurting me! Stop!"

Yaya grabbed Tsubomi by the air and ripped her up, laughing and whispering under her breath. "Hikari...hikari...hikari..." She gasped it, almost moaning her name, as she tugged onto Tsubomi's hair so hair it made her scream. Yaya wrapped her hands twice around the long rose locks and dragged her deeper into the forest, being drawn towards the edges where the moonlight could not touch. She could feel it in her blood. In the cuts on the bottom of her feet as she mindlessly stepped on upturned rocks and slashed her heels across sharpened stumps of wood. The forest ahead, and what wickedness that manifested there was drinking the suffering. The blood warmed the rocks and shuddered, pulling towards the woods as if it lived. As she traveled further in, the screaming of Tsubomi echoed through the forest.

Finally she reached the edge of the forest. Yaya stood in a clearing, connected to a strange forest that had trees that almost seemed made of bone and antler. The grass curling into bizarre formations. She could feel the grass lick the blood on the bottom of her feet as she stood there, the struggling girl behind her clawing at her legs. Yaya didn't care, not even noticing Tsubomi's fingernails peeling skin off of her thighs. Tsubomi angrily twisted her head back, trying to lash out at Yaya's chest. Her fingers coiled around something foreboding, ice-cold and not of this world. Her fingers pulled the pendant free, as Yaya tore Tsubomi to the ground.

"Remi-sama, I have brought my payment."


	7. Chapter 7

Around two girls, one shrouded in pain and terror, and another in sinful wanting, a dark creature lurked.

The creature gazed upon them as they stepped further away from their sanctuary, from the light of saints and the safety of their dormitories. God could not see them in this forest of death.

The dark feminine voice whispered to the black haired girl, who stood upon twisted branches and blood-soaked leaves. Her fists wrapped around the hair of her sacrifice.

"Dear Yaya, You've strayed from your old life."

She did not respond, instead tightening her grip as the poor Tsubomi that laid at her side pulled closer, trying to make the pain stop.

"You were once a beautiful singer, an admirable upperclass student and loyal friend. Now look at you. Dragging a girl who cared about you to the mouth of hell, just to get what you want."

Yaya did not react to the teasing of the succubus. It was true.

"I don't get what you're trying to do. Make me feel bad that I'm doing this?" Yaya shrugged at the darkness, unable to know where her wishmaster was. She looked down at the knot of pink hair that turned her fingers white from how tight it wound around them. Tsubomi was panting, and had stopped asking questions. Stopped asking why. Stopped trying to fight, as Yaya brought her deeper into what she thought was her final resting place. She was pale and cold, just reacting to whatever Yaya did in hopes her pain wouldn't spike.

"Tsubomi, I want you to meet somebody. Can you say hi for me?" Tsubomi's head peaked up, shivering. "Who are you talking to? There's nobody else here but US!" She yelled out, reaching up and holding her scalp with her hands.

"Huh, that's rather weird. I thought Remi would be delighted to be talking to you. I was expecting she would try to steal you from me to get out of her side of the deal." Yaya smiled, and attempted to bait Remi into talking.

"Well, Remi, I got your sacrifice. I brought it to this miserable place, and I want to gain what I desire. Deals a deal, right?"

Remi's voice sang through the woods and rippled across the murky puddles on the ground. "I actually don't know. Now that I've seen her, I don't think she's really my type. Can you be a dear, and try to fetch that Kagome girl for me instead? I think I might-"

"REMI!"

Yaya screamed the succubus' name with such fervor it silenced the demoness herself, and echoed through out the forest, putting her teasing games to rest. Depraved and ready to kill, Yaya had shifted, ready to shed blood in the name of getting what she wanted this night. Too much trouble had erupted to just turn back and grab another girl now.

"...If you really want Kagome, I can get her for you too. However, I require payment first. Hikari's eternal love."

Tsubomi clenched her teeth in anger and betrayal, at the utterance of this line. "So I am payment for that girl's affection? You're going to murder me to get something as simple as love? Is that all my life is worth to you?!"

"I'm not murdering you, Tsubomi, I'm simply-"

"YOU BROUGHT ME INTO A FOREST, TALKING TO SOMETHING THAT ISN'T THERE! WHO THE HELL IS REMI? WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THIS PERSON WILL KEEP THEIR SIDE OF THEIR DEAL? HAVE YOU EVER SEEN IT WORK!?"

Yaya began to get worried.

"Remi, can you please introduce yourself? Reveal your true form, and speak to her. Just to make me feel like I'm not imagining all of this."

"THERES NOBODY HERE BUT US, YAYA!"

Remi began to laugh, unseen in the shadows. "I don't know, Yaya, wouldn't that be crazy? If I was a figment of your imagination this whole time? That you were SOOOO desperate to acquire a girl that was lost to you forever, that you just invented me out of madness?"

"God damn it Remi, show your self or I swear to God I will kill her!"

Tsubomi began to weep, while Remi laughed.

"Right. Kill the only reason I even considered helping your pathetic cause. You kill her, get marked as a maniac, reveal nothing, and live the rest of your life as an unloved psycho. No, by all means kill her. I dare you to try. All in all it will be the same. You have no power, and you need me to ever be happy."

Yaya sat in the darkness completely lost. No, this couldn't have been a psychotic episode. She knew what kind of person Remi was, didn't she? A lover of mind games, a demon who loved to break people. It would be too stupid to invent this entire charade, to go out and kill Tsubomi. There was a grand scheme to things, a supernatural element that no unhappiness could cause. Remi was real. She felt her touch, she knew the fear and hope she felt was real. It racked agaist her brain until it screamed.

"Yaya?" cried out a voice along her feet. Yaya's breathing began to increase in speed, as Tsubomi spoke her name again. "Yaya?"

"...Yes Tsubomi?"

"There is nobody else here, is there?"

Yaya let the reality of her situation settle in. She took what calculated thoughts she had remaining, and decided to put her plan into action. The only one she could think that would work.

"...No, my dear Tsubomi. There isn't. I must have imagined this all. The idea of a succubus, a dealer from the dark that would soothe my aching soul is too fantastical to believe. I could see why I believed in such a concept. I could believe in God, I could believe in angels, so why not succubi? Temptations, seductresses, monsters. Anything to help me when all other options have closed." Yaya lowered her head, letting her hands open to free Tsubomi's hair.

"Tsubomi, do you remember what you told me, when we were together behind the chapel? That you wanted to help me find my special thing? That we would find those special things together? How you wanted to see me happy? How you wanted to help me?" Tsubomi nervously nodded, wondering if it would be the best time to run into the wild darkness of the forest. It did not matter where, as long as she could get away. This insane creature speaking to herself was not Yaya. Talking to demons that didn't exist.

"There is only one thing I truly want now, and that is to see you live. Please, tell the headmothers where I am, tell Hikari and Amane too. They will know what to do. Until then, I'm sorry things ended this way. Please go." Yaya walked away from Tsubomi, her back turned towards Tsubomi.

She did not need Yaya's permission. Within the utterance of Yaya's last words, she pushed her body up with all her might and started to flee, to leave her crazed captor behind. Not a single look behind, not a "thank you", or anything a sentimental friend would say. Yaya was a monster and she needed to do everything in her power to stop her!

Tsubomi fled through the forest, her feet slapping against rocks and cold puddles, some uproots sending her crashing into clusters of dead trees that impaled her skin. She winced in pain, and yelled out. "Somebody help me!" She continued towards the destination she thought would grant her freedom. Her sprint began to slow. Her pained feet began to pulse in pain, as her run slowed.

Each step made her more uncertain, as the lightless grove she ran towards began to confuse her. The outstretched wood that looked like skinless bones, the twisting bushes draped in razor-sharp thorns, the muddy ground that bit at her with every foot, every piece was individually horrible but woven together in a illusionary mess that made her realize, she had no idea where she was. It was in that moment, she realized she had fled in the entirely wrong direction.

"Somebody help me!" Tsubomi screamed, as she sprinted in the opposite direction, her hands held out to her face as low-hanging branches slashed her arms. As she was running, an uprooted rock connected with her toe, breaking her toenail upward, and sending her rolling into the mud and rocky ground below. She screamed in pain and held her foot, the sensitive nail sending agony everywhere nerves still worked.

She gasped for air, and began trying to run towards the edge of the forest again, trying desperately to find the moon. To find flashlight beams. To find any light at all. She limped with her damaged foot, the earth below being no more her friend than the plantlife around her. A whip-like branch she had no seen slapped her across the face and left a welt across her eye, stunning her in place and making her cry out.

She held her eye and continued onwards, hoping to see green instead of gray or black. She did not. "Somebody help me..." she weakly wimpered out, before finally losing her breath, collapsing to the ground, and beginning to weep. Mud and leaves were scattered in her rosen hair, feeling so many different sensations of agony that were previously alien to her.

"How does it feel, Tsubomi?" spoke a voice through the forest, sending terror through her body. It was Yaya.

"How does it feel, to have the only person here that could help you, be the one you fear the most?" Yaya's footsteps through the soggy ground inched closer and closer to her from every direction.

"How does it feel, to have the only one listening to you, want to see you suffer?" Tsubomi could not even stand up, she grabbed a soggy stick and raised it, ready to strike at the psychopath.

"How does it feel to think you're finally free of a hellish fate, and find out you were never free at all?" There was a sadistic edge to her voice, as Yaya inched closer, her white skin the only thing visible in the dark forest. Tsubomi raised the stick to her defense, holding it out before her like a spear.

"Get away Yaya! I will kill you!" Tsubomi screamed as she drove the stick towards Yaya. It stabbed her in the stomach weakly, and cracked. It didn't even tear her clothes, as it splintered wet and feel to Yaya's side. She could see the shine of Yaya's teeth in the dark, a monstrous smile etched across her face as she stood above Tsubomi.

"I know Remi is real, because I don't want her to be real. I want to believe the times I had at Astraea Hill will last forever. That true love is obtainable, that everyone gets a happy ending. However, I know that isn't true. Somebody has to end up alone, somebody has to be unhappy, somebody has to lose. God put me on this earth to watch Hikari be with somebody else. To see somebody who SHOULD HAVE BEEN with her, end up alone, end up with somebody who did evil things to get her. However, I'm going to even the playing field."

Tsubomi's fingers coiled into the mud on the ground, unable to see or even walk, she began to gasp out, trying as hard as she could to cry. Yaya rested a hand on the back of the poor girl. "How does it feel, Tsubomi? To know despair? Wouldn't you just do ANYTHING to be free from it?" Yaya ran her fingers through Tsubomi's damaged, but still soft hair, and tightened her fingers through it, forcing the girl back onto her feet.

"In order to end your own suffering, you must pass that suffering onto somebody else." Tsubomi shivered as she stared off blankly, all fight in her body completely gone as she obediently obeyed the tug of Yaya's fistful. Before the broken girl, emerged something. Something donning a gorgeous dress, with bestial eyes and wings that slid along the trees. High heels that glided across the ground but touched nothing, not even a spot of mud tarnished her shoes. A beautiful face emerged from the blackness, and looked at Yaya in a newfound respect.

This was Yaya's plan after all.

"You were never planning on letting her go, were you? You wanted to screw with her, to prove a point." Remi spoke. Yaya shook her head, pulling up Tsubomi and guiding her face towards Remi, the first sight of the succubus making her eyes widen. It was true then. Remi was real, and Tsubomi could see her.

"No, I was never trying to prove a point at all, Remi. I just wanted to see all hope in her little heart die. I wanted to see what despair looked like from an outside perspective. True and utter despair. It is the only way she could see you, like I see you." Yaya gazed at the succubus, bowing her head, and pushing the destroyed girl forward, letting her collapse to the ground.

"Remi-sama, with this offering I give you, I wish to acquire what I have longed for, for so long. That Amane had prevented me from getting for so long. I wish to have the eternal love of Hikari, in exchange for Tsubomi herself. "

Remi grinned, and with a flick of her wings, glided over to Tsubomi. She reached the girl with her hand, lifting her up and cradling her in her arms. Remi had never looked so happy before, the delight on her face an almost bewitching expression that drew you in, made you want to bask in her smile. "She's so beautiful...it's a shame you chose Hikari over her. I, quite frankly can't see what you see in her."

Yaya shrugged. "So, will you break Amane's hex on her, and grant her everlasting love to me?"

Remi narrowed her eyes. "I have never made any deals with Amane, Yaya. I wish I had the power to break that girl." Yaya was taken aback. "What do you mean? Amane claimed she had known you! She called you by name!" Remi laughed, as she began to push the sleeve of Tsubomi's shirt down, to let it hang temptingly down her arm.

"No, my sweet girl. Amane was supposed to sacrifice Hikari to me, to get her heart's desire. However, turned out her heart's desire was Hikari, so she bailed out of the deal and threw away the pendant, and passed my curse onto you. Funny how things work, right?"

Yaya flourished her hands at Remi in confusion. "You mean, there was a chance all along? That she could have loved me? Then why did you tell me I never had a chance? That our paths could never cross and that she...could never love me?"

"I don't know, probably because I'm a demon of deceit, lust and heartbreak? And I love watching you writhe in pain, and inch deeper and deep into self destruction? Either way, I think we should be wrapping this up, I've erased her memory from all not involved and I have places to be with my new toy. " Remi ran her hand along Tsubomi's face, sending shudders of jealousy through Yaya's body. Shivers that made her defensive over the poor girl. Strange. Where did those come from? Normally, her mind would've been polluted with Hikari to the point where she could have seen Tsubomi die and not even care. Now, Yaya felt a feeling of loss, a very small twinge of loss, but it was there.

"Alright Yaya Nanto, give me your pendant, and the deal will be sealed. Hikari shall eternally love you."

Yaya smiled, and reached for her neck, realizing, her pendant was missing. She reached around on different parts of her neck, believing it was misplaced. No, it was not on her neck at all. She reached for her pockets, and felt nothing. She looked at the blackened ground, falling on her knees and reaching around for it. "No, no..." she impatiently whispered to herself. Oh God no, please, not now.

Her breathing began to go out of control. She remembered, somewhere in the forest, Tsubomi had tore it free. "Remi-sama, can you wait for a moment! I lost it! I think I know where it is though, so I'm-" Remi erupted into laughter that shook the trees, her wings outspread and full of delight.

"I'm sorry dear, but I don't know why I should wait for you. I have what I want." Remi took Tsubomi and turned around, her gigantic wings hiding them both from view.

"WAIT NO! REMI! STOP! I JUST NEED SOME TIME TO LOOK FOR IT! PLEASE DON'T GO NOW!"

With a flick of Remi's wings, she dematerialized into the blackness of the forest, leaving no footprints or gusts to lead Yaya to her direction.

"REMIIIIIIII!" screamed Yaya, as she ran towards the last place she saw the succubus, finding nothing in the black forest. Even with her eyes widened to psychotic levels, drinking in the light like a nocturnal predator, she couldn't see any sign of Remi anywhere. Not Tsubomi's footsteps, no dragmarks, no stiletto prints, the only footsteps she could see were her own.

Yaya dove to the ground, her fingers open and clawing at every single inch of mud that she had ever stepped in. She ripped the earth apart, rocks and mud wedged into her fingernails, splattering herself with wet earth as she frantically searched for her pendant. If she couldn't find it, then all of her actions would have been for nothing. She would have committed an innocent girl to a horrible fate for literally no reason.

Her fingernail clicked backwards against a rock, and she continued to dig.

Her finger bent too far in a bad direction, and she continued to dig.

Her long black hair sank into her face and became spattered with earth, and she continued to dig.

She dug at the earth until she could no longer breathe, until the edges of the black forest began to give away to the morning sun.

Yaya cried tears of panic and despair as she followed the timeline back to the wall that bordered Astraea Hill. The guts of earthworms and beetles dried onto her fingers and made them stink, and her eyes were bloodshot and heavy from measuring every single crevice and shaft of grass, not finding what she had lost.

She kneeled at the green grass in front of the dormitories, staring at them in disbelief, as two figures rushed towards her, calling out her name.

"Yaya! Yaya!"

She had sent a girl to her death, to be subjugated to the whims of a demoness, and had nothing to show for it.

Hikari and Amane stood before her, beholding her form in concern and apprehension. Yaya turned her head, looking towards Hikari with a look of infinite shame so intense, it made Yaya's legs shake. Yaya began to laugh to herself, and then it evolved into tears.

"...Yaya? Where were you?" Hikari's voice began to fill with concern, its softness being more painful than anything Yaya could bear. She could hear a twinge of Tsubomi's voice in it as well. She could hear Remi's voice as well, taunting her and teasing her. Her obsession with Hikari had completely vanished. Her sickening love, her limerence, the flashes, the mental images, they were all gone. Replaced by a black heath that spread into her heart, through her spine, into her head, and threatened to destroy her from the inside and out.

Yaya could only feel one thing, and it had never made it feel more alone. The only thing that she could have shared with somebody, and that somebody was gone. She had thought she was free from her hellish fate. Only to find out she was never free at all.


	8. Chapter 8

There was something particularly wrong about today, everyone noticed.

As if a door was opened, and all of the warm air inside was immediately sucked out, replaced with the air that chilled you, that made you wary of shadows. A feeling that, even if you were alone in a room, with your friends just on the other side of the door, you felt threatened, you felt hunted, and you would scurry from empty rooms to seek safety from others. The chapels were empty, and the girls woke up feeling something strange. Indescribable. Did something bad happen?

The infirmary which held one particularly interesting individual was not safe from this feeling of airlessness, this restlessness.

"What's wrong with her?" the infirmary nurse said, as she looked in at a deranged and upset brunette sitting on her bed in the observation room. Covered in mud, in what appeared to be small splats of blood, red lines from fingernails going across whatever wasn't covered in clothes. They didn't even look like self-inflicted wounds.

"I found her outside of the forest near the dorms, like she got into a fight with an animal...the only sane thing she asked me, the only thing I could understand through her crying was...if I loved her, and I told her 'not in that way'. She started to cry uncontrollably. She started to scream. She was ripping her own hair out, yelling "I'm going to kill her!" over and over again. Amane had to hold her down, and that's when everyone helped her bring her here."

"Who was she saying she was going to kill?" asked the nurse, warily keeping an eye on the threatening girl in the observation room. She was staring so hatefully at absolutely nothing. Locked inside of her own mind on the verge of crying, on the verge of rage, on the verge of something completely...inhuman. It was something that you couldn't describe by comparing similar emotions, not something that you could call a mix of grief, despair and hate. It was new, and Yaya was struggling to even comprehend it. It seethed out of her body, sending convulsions through her arms as if she wanted to flip the bed over and tear her nails across the walls.

"Did she attack you, Amane?" asked the nurse, observing the bruises and redness of Amane. As Amane ran a memory through her head, it came out fragmented. A confused mess, snips of one thought locked into another. Something had gone through her mind and just dragged a saw through it, leaving everything a mess. It had stolen things, but she had no idea what.

"I don't know. I remember Hikari and I going out towards the forest and finding her, I don't know why I was going there at all, or why I had been hurt."

The outline of a torn apart memory passed through her consciousness like a jellyfish in the abyssal trenches of the ocean, there, but so hard to see it felt nonexistent. "You're a killer, Amane. killer killer killer Killer!" The image of an extremely gorgeous girl with burning infernal eyes appeared in her mind, blowing a kiss towards her. The voices raged on as this infernal beauty vanished from her mental canvas. "Liar. Thief. Murderer. I know of your sins." Soft words that were connected to nothing, but in Yaya's voice. She hadn't killed anyone. Amane had no idea why such fragments were buzzing in her head.

"I probably fell off my horse, that's all." She calmly lied, letting the nurse focus on something else.

Hikari placed her hand on the glass, looking in at her friend. It was so out-of-place to see her friend so shaken up by something. Even she had no reliable memory of the violent altercation. She had felt something comb through her neurons, breaking apart chains of moments and feelings and sending them scattered and lost, a specific name, and events connected to them, gone. Like a lingering sensation of Deja vu.

"What are you going to do to her?" Hikari asked. "Since she is talking about killing somebody and is extremely unresponsive, I'm going to have to contact the local police and release her into their custody, she might be very dangerous and we aren't equipped to-" Hikari stepped in front of the phone on the wall that the nurse looked at.

"No! She is my friend! I don't want her hauled away!"

"Hikari, listen. You aren't a doctor, or a psychiatrist. We have to bring her somewhere that she can't harm anyone."

"She won't harm anyone! Just let me talk to her!" Hikari couldn't get over what Yaya had said. It confused her. Yaya speaking to her though, felt like it was the right thing to do. There was a reason she was so torn up, why Amane looked so worn down, but neither of them having a solid idea of what the hell happened.

Amane let something come back to mind, before her and Hikari were together. When she was injured, and lost her memory. Lost her memory in a very specific way, guided not by typical trauma or biology. It had cut the memories of Hikari straight out of her mind, and it took so much for her to even remember who the girl was. That isn't the way natural amnesia works. It was something different...something malicious.

This wasn't the first time her memories were altered, or put under attack. There was something out there that had done that to her, caused her to forget Hikari. Now, she had felt it again, but now, Hikari's friend Yaya and been attacked, she had been attacked, and the memories failed to come back too.

After an argument with the nurse, Hikari got permission from the nurse to approach Yaya again.

"Yaya-san? It's me, Hikari. Do you remember me?"

"Of course I remember you. I don't have amnesia. I remember Everything." Yaya's head loomed as she uttered 'everything', referring to the memories they both shared.

"I remember things I was never meant to know...as if I was there watching. They poisoned me Hikari."

Hikari took a deep breath. She feared treading over this topic again. She thought they had gotten past it. "What happened in the bedroom was-"

"NO HIKARI, NOT THAT!" Yaya tightened her aching fingers into the side of the bed. They were covered with broken fingernails, gross and impure. It hurt Hikari to see them like that, but the sympathy was overturned by feelings of surprise and disgust.

"Yaya, I'm your friend. I don't care what anyone says. The headmothers, the nurse, the police. All of this is between us. So tell me what you're thinking about."

"Well, you see Hikari, I wanted you so much it drove me insane, and I kinda maybe made a deal with a demon to sacrifice one of the freshmen, in hopes of finally being able to get into your pants, but I screwed it up and ended up giving Tsubomi over to the demon for absolutely free! She's probably being tortured or raped because of me and now I can't sleep and am going mad with grief. You know, just girly things! Smileyface!"

She fancied the idea of actually saying that. It would be dark comedy gold to see the reaction of her friend, confessing such a terrible situation to them. No. Hikari could NEVER be that forgiving, it borders on gullible and stupid. Yaya would get hauled away, locked up for the murder of a girl that they were never going to find, and allow Remi to lure another broken hearted girl to her grisly end. Yaya knew she wasn't the only one out there.

"Hikari, I think I've calmed down..." Yaya lied.

"...Okay?...but why do you look so beat up? Who did this to you? Who were you going to kill?" asked Hikari, referring to the scratches down her leg. Yaya got an idea. She couldn't tell the whole story, but maybe she could leave out the parts including her. She couldn't have been the only one who had met the monster in the forest.

"There is a demoness named Remi stalking this school. She's been preying upon the students for many years, and she attacked me in the forest. Can you help me fight her?"

Hikari shook her head. "It's not nice to make up things, Yaya. I'm really trying to help you."

"YOU THINK I'M MAKING THIS UP!?" She lashed out. "THERE IS A DEMON NAMED REMI! SHE USED TO BE AN ETOILE! I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG AGO! She somehow became a demon and started making deals to steal away the souls of girls for...God knows what! The forest she lives in looks like it was made out of bones, the puddles smell disgusting and it stretches on way too far! There's no way it can be natural! I know there are cities on the other side but they cease to exist the moment you walk into the forest! LOOK IN THE RECORDS! SHE'S GOTTA BE HERE! ASK AMANE! SHE'S SEEN HER!" Yaya was pointing directly at Amane, who shook her head confused.

"I...don't know what you're talking about, Yaya!" Amane's confusion seemed legitimate, not like she was trying to hide something. No, Amane was trying to cover her ass. But, why believe anything Remi had said? Was Amane's intended sacrifice Hikari? Did Amane sacrifice somebody to get Hikari's love? WAS THAT EVEN AMANE AT ALL? That god-damned demoness had thrown her such a loop. She could disguise as anyone. She could have pretended to be anyone she wanted, she pretended to be Hikari...what if she pretended to be Tsubomi?

Yaya held her head trying to let the rage of emotions and unanswered questions cease. Remi is real. Remi is real. Remi is real! Why did she care about convincing her friends? Then, she remembered Tsubomi. The girl that was erased. There had to be evidence of her. There's no way Remi could just log into computer records, throw away all of her belongings, convince her own god damn parents that they never had a child. She may be supernatural, but mind tricks could only do so much. No way a lowly demon like her could change the entire fabric of existence.

"Amane...Hikari, can you bring me to room 3-A?!" Yaya cried out. Hikari accepted, but the nurse stood in front of her, not letting her leave the observation area. "I'm sorry Nanto-san, but you cannot be allowed out on the dorm area if you're going to continue being a threat." THERE WAS NOT TIME FOR THIS!

"Fine, I'm not being threatening! I just need to see somebody! They can tell you everything that happened last night! Please!?"

"I'm sorry Nanto-san, but you can't do that. You're being too aggressive." In an inhuman flash, Yaya coiled her fingers around the nurses collar and jerked her forward until they were face to face. Something changed in Yaya, an expression of absolute foreboding appeared on her face. One that gave Amane a chill of deja vu. She had seen that horrid face somewhere, unhinged and ready to rip flesh out with her teeth and her nails. "HOW'S THIS FOR AGGRESSIVE!? There is a god damn demon on the campus and you "doing your job" is getting in the way of me PROTECTING PEOPLE! I don't care if you believe me, back off!" Yaya gritted her teeth and shoved the nurse backwards, letting her fall into the observational area's coach and stare dumbfounded at her. Nothing like this ever happened at Astraea Hill, she had no idea how to react. She nodded obediently, in shock from the fear of being hit.

Amane and Hikari backed off, and didn't follow as this torn up looking girl burst through the infirmary doors and ran off towards the Spica dorms. The nurse most likely was going to call the cops. Her parents back in Tokyo were going to hear about this. She'd probably get kicked out of Astraea Hill forever.

It didn't matter to her at the moment. The only thing she was thinking of, was finding answers.

As she blew through the hallways, crawling up the stairs, and following the path she took just last night, the memories of her degradation began to come back. The psychotic rage, hyper-aggressiveness, that coursed through her blood began to settle, began to lighten as she saw an image of her previous self replicating her past movements.

A crazed girl crawling up the stairs, gasping "Hikari" as her eyes ceased to blink, pupils extremely dilated. Regret laid itself onto Yaya, as her pace slowed, and she grabbed the railing, instead of rushing the stairs on all fours.

She reached the top of the stairwell, and remembered a zombie-like creature in the guise of Yaya strutting down the hallway. Willing to do anything to satiate her desires. Yaya calmly walked down the hallways, closing her eyes and trying to push this madness from her mind. As she neared room 3-A, she noticed a gathering around the door. Nervous, Yaya walked up to it, asking the first girl in front of her what was going on.

It was Kagome, with her hands around her teddy bear. "Percival said that a new wonder was found..." A new wonder? In Tsubomi's room!? "What do you mean a new wonder?" The doll-like girl turned, looking at her, and tilting her head, almost measuring Yaya with her eyes. Kagome raised the bear in front of her, and Kagome began talking for it.

"This room is haunted by somebody." the bear bobbed and enunciated its words, its arms moving to and fro as Kagome animated it. "They moved into this room, and were waiting for somebody." Did Tsubomi come back? Or was it Remi pretending to be her? To erase her existence from this room? Yaya tried to push herself to the front of the room, younger girls crying out as Yaya wedged herself through them. "What's going on here! What is this new wonder?"

One of the girls happily cheered. "It's the mysterious 3-A ghost!" Yaya narrowed her eyes, slightly upset. There were girls looking through drawers of folded clothes, of art supplies and stationary. There were headbands and stickers, shoes sitting by the side of the bed. Girls in deer hunter hats and magnifying glasses were scouting around the room, investigating the phenomenon in classic Astraea Hill style. It was not a dreadful event, or a dark reminder to signify death or evil. The girls had no idea what actually happened here, and it made her feel so wrong to be the only one not part of the merry-making.

"The girl in this room had no idea where everything here came from. She woke up this morning and noticed all of the stuff here, and immediately asked for an investigation. The Lilim and Spica girls got here first, the Miator girls haven't got here yet. Everyone thinks they played a prank on us."

"This isn't a ghost's doing. How do none of you know who's stuff this is? HOW DO YOU NOT REMEMBER YOUR OWN ROOM MATE?" Yaya yelled at the girl sitting on the bed opposite of Tsubomi's. "I've never had a room mate..." she nervously said, breaking the comfy peppiness of the girls around her. "This stuff belongs to Tsubomi. I don't want any of you bothering it!" Yaya began to pull shirts and notebooks out of girl's hands, and putting them back onto the bed. "Hey, who said you get to name the ghost? You weren't here first!" pouted the girl dressed like Sherlock Holmes.

"SHE'S NOT A GHOST! HER NAME IS TSUBOMI OKUWAKA!" screamed Yaya, as she stood defensively against the bed. All the girls went silent, unsure of what to do or say. They took a look at her, in her crazed state, unshowered and looking like she stepped out of the grave. "I never had a room mate named Tsubomi. I don't think a girl by that name ever came here..." mentioned one of the girls.

It worked. Remi wasn't lying. Absolutely none of the girls had any idea who Tsubomi was. Even her room mate looked unmistakably confused. Convinced that the belongings of Tsubomi that sat across from her just mysteriously appeared, and that she always roomed alone. That the girl that sat with Yaya at lunch, who spent time with her after the Etoile election in the same funk as her, the girl who confessed her little heart out to Yaya behind the chapel...never existed.

"Then, where is this Tsubomi!?" replied some of the the girls in the crowd, peeking out of the door frame. That question pierced Yaya's chest and she sat there in front of a dozen faces, unable to give an answer that was rational or acceptable. An answer that was believable or understandable.

"I had killed her."

The words seeped into her mouth, but made no sound, as the dread and true evil of her actions spread their wings and were born from her body. The craziness in her blood was gone, and could no longer protect her from her sins. She had committed this girl to death, committed her to being forgotten by everybody in her life. None of her friends or room mates had any idea who Yaya was talking about, and it was all her fault.

"I...I found a diary! The ghost's diary!" exclaimed a girl who was by the desk. The diary was sealed with a button, and as the girl attempted to pry it open, Yaya flashed across the room and ripped it out of the girl's hands. "LEAVE THAT ALONE, IT BELONGS TO TSUBOMI!" The girls were getting offended by Yaya's brash and threatening actions now. "Yaya go back to your room! You're just being mean because you didn't discover it first! Let her have that diary. We wanna read it!"

"It could solve the mystery of why the she came here!"

"SHE? What if its a boy ghost!?"

The girls kept spouting new theories and talking among themselves, but Yaya had enough. "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HERE! LEAVE TSUBOMI'S STUFF ALONE! SHE'LL BE BACK FOR IT!" Yaya screamed, the truth of the statement causing her pain. Tsubomi was never coming back. As Yaya burst through the girls again, holding the diary in her hands, she entered the hallway, and saw Kagome looking at her, holding her bear.

"...You remember Tsubomi, right!? YOU HAVE TO." Yaya pleaded. Kagome held the bear in front of her face, but said nothing. She could see Yaya's distress, but couldn't answer the question. The question would hurt her. Yaya scoffed and ran down the hallway, as a few girls gave a small chase, asking for the diary back. Yaya fled the scene, her feet slapping against concrete, blazing towards the only place she felt safe. The place that her and Tsubomi had talked.

With a hard thud she hid behind the wall, gasping and wondering if anyone pursued. As she tried to catch her breath, she stared at the pages. She looked at the cover, and noticed that the place where the name would be, had been wiped clean. But she could see them!

Yaya could see the imprints where pen had passed over the cardboard of the book. Squinting her eyes, she could make it out. The deep words spelling out a name. Her name. Yaya ripped the book open, and sure enough, in the beginning were notes. Were scrawlings in Tsubomi's handwriting. A lot of it had been erased, some of it leaving nothing behind. Something evil poured into this paper and erased tons of stuff, leaving half the book blank. However, some of her most intimate thoughts remained, as if immune to Remi's power.

"Tsubomi..." Yaya mouthed to herself, as her fingers slid across a series of pages that made Yaya blush.

Page 2

(I think) I Know I love you Yaya

Have you ever met somebody, that the first time you saw them, the wrongness of the world and the seeming pointlessness of existence seemed to go away? A person that made your heart swell, made your anxieties dissipate, and made the tortures of everyday life seem to have some silver lining in the end, some point to all of it? A person that made you smile when they smiled, that you wanted to protect and worry about when they were at a low? That even under their defiant and independent exterior, you saw deep inside them a horrible longing that they hid away out of shame, a pain that made you want to reach inside their heart and undo the years of damage? To pull them close to you to absorb their scent, feel their skin warm against yours and their heartbeats flutter? That person I met was you, Yaya.

I don't know what to say sometimes when I'm around you. Somedays, I just want to grab this notebook and show it to you, confess everything, and let you see the side of me that I keep locked away in this stupid book. Would you laugh at me? Would you cringe and politely say no? Would you stop talking to me, or have somebody you love tell me to leave you alone? So many bad things...

I feel sick as I'm writing this because I'm scared. I've never felt so scared in my life of something so silly, but I am! Because I'm scared of screwing everything up and not having you. I'm scared of somebody else coming along who is so much better than me, and have to accept that I'll never have you. If you did find somebody better, that would be fine. I would only hope that they would make you 100% happier than you would be with me. That you would find the perfect wife for you.

I would never hate you for finding love. I would feel sad, but I would get over it, because if you're happy, I am happy.

Yaya felt a rush of disgust. Not of the writing, not at all. At herself, for her sin. She felt admiration too, at how mature Tsubomi was, how beautiful her words were. Why would she hide such glorious things away? Merely reading them made her sway with a joy, a joy that felt like a small candle keeping her warm in the dark.

She saw the contrast, of her own behavior and Tsubomi's. Tsubomi wouldn't have been tempted by Remi, would she? She wouldn't have gone to such terrible lengths to get what she wanted. She was content with seeing Yaya happy even if she wasn't part of it.

I can't live on what ifs forever, Yaya. I write out what I feel about you on here, but want you to know. To find love is a competition, I see girls like Shizuma who could easily take you away from me, or girls like Chikaru who could draw you in and capture your heart, and I look at myself and feel so unworthy. What could I offer you? What is likeable about me? Why would I force you to settle for, just me!?

But I can't self loathe, blame others, or give up. I have a choice to approach you, and confess. To tell you how I feel. Tell you how I can't stop looking at your gorgeous face, and how every moment you smile I just want to worship you. You've completely enthralled me, and made me want to change my life to revolve around yours. I don't know what I wanna be when I graduate from here, but I do know that whatever I'm doing, as long as you're by my side, it will come out perfect. We can work through any challenge, and I would never fight you. I don't know why your heart is so heavy, but I aim to find out. I will cure you Yaya. I want to be your angel. I want to save you, and make you the happy awesome person I know you can be.

I love you Yaya. I love you Yaya. I love you Yaya. The more I say it, the more real I think it is. No, the more real I know it is.

I'm going to go out to your special spot. It's not a secret spot, but I'll let you call it that. We can get what we always dreamed of, and I will help you all the way through it. I'll do anything for you, Yaya.

-Tsubomi

This is why.

This is why Remi wanted Tsubomi.

Not because of a lolicon fantasy, or some demonic collection that just required another girl to fill the quota. Remi chose her specifically because of how pure-hearted she was, and how utterly...utterly...

Angelic she was. "I'm no angel, Tsubomi. how could you think that of me!?" sobbed Yaya. "How could you think I was something other than a obsessive polluted filthspreader? The little obedient tramp, a toything of a monster who took you away from this beautiful world?" Remi could have erased these writings easily, there was no glossing over or important magic in them, no holy guard. Remi left these passages here so when Yaya found them, it would be that extra stab, that ironic twist that would break her.

It worked. Yaya couldn't even tap into her anger to protect her heart from what came next. Guilt. True and undeniable guilt, that she had somebody who loved her all along and she happily led her into the clutches of a manipulative killer. Her losing the pendant was karma. Yaya did not deserve ANYONE'S LOVE. She wanted to scream at the sky, at the forest about how she would kill Remi, how she would rip her hair out with her bare hands. Pluck her wings and cast them into fire as she exchanged torture for torture. These fantasies of revenge were blotted out.

Blotted out by Tsubomi. Her innocent advances, her consolation. Her purity. Yaya knew one thing, in that moment of her sadness. That she wanted to set things right again, somehow.

"Hikari, I don't deserve somebody like you, and you don't deserve the fate I gave to you. I promise, I will find a way. Find a way to save you. I don't care what I have to do. It is the one thing I want most of all."


	9. Chapter 9

Despite everyone in the Miator dorms waking up with that sense of strange loss, that wave of deja vu, one girl in particular woke up fine, completely naive to the unsettling threatening aura that settled over the strawberry dorms. She stretched and yawned, the upbeat sun letting her red hair shine in the sun.

She woke up with a smile, stretching and saying good morning to her room mate, with literally no idea somebody close to her had just ceased to exist. "Today looks like its going to be a nice day!" Nagisa mentioned, walking over to the window and taking in the sweet afternoon air, completely oblivious to the police officers on campus, leading a battered and despondent Yaya Nanto towards their cars for questioning while other girls gazed out of their windows in shock.

Tamao was sitting on her bed, looking at her with narrowed eyes, but relaxed with a smile. "I don't think today is as good as you think, Nagisa-chan. You slept in, so you missed a lot." Tamao was ready to tell her room mate of the events that unfolded. How they found a new wonder in the Spica dorm. How Yaya Nanto emerged from the forest talking to herself, talking about wanting to kill people, and how she attacked a nurse in the infirmary. Speaking of demons and curses and a sin she refused to tell anyone.

"Today is going to be good Tamao-chan! I can feel it in my bones!" she exclaimed, hopping up and down on her floor. "We can go off campus and have ice-cream today! Maybe we can look for ghosts too!" Nagisa exclaimed, watching as Tamao's attention perked up at the mention of anything supernatural.

"I think we have to remain in-doors until the police finish their business." Tamao said, looking down at her book and focusing on her reading. Nagisa noticed this, and summarily plucked the book out of her hands. "Or...we could sneak out?" Nagisa grinned with childish delight, tossing the book to the side while she opened her hand to Tamao.

"Nagisa-chan...when did you become so rebellious?" Tamao happily accepted Nagisa's extended hand and hoisted her off the bed. She shrugged, going to the bathroom with her new set of clothes. "I don't know! I feel so bouncy and alive nowadays. I think Shizuma's been rubbing off on me."

The name felt like a disgusting slur, as it slipped from Nagisa's mouth. Shi-zu-ma. Before the memories came back to bite her, Tamao-chan bit the tip of her lip and maintained her smile. Not today. Today was the day they would go out for ice cream. It made her happy, that Nagisa had made the offer earlier that week.

She had noticed that Tamao seemed to have lost a lot of her life, on the night of the Etoile election. That her actions were the cause of it, and she wanted to make amends for it. Nagisa didn't completely "get it" though, she didn't truly understand that Tamao liked her. Liked her, liked her. That her innocent advances and flirting were more than just a "friend thing". That Tamao was a little more hurt than the air-headed redhead seemed to believe.

"Alright, I'm going to get dressed, I will be back in a few!" spoke Nagisa, as she entered the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Tamao sat there in the room alone, for just a few seconds. She peeked out the window, the red and blue lights being toned out by the bright sun, but the black haired girl standing out amongst the cars. Yaya...what had she done? Why was she talking about demons?

Tamao looked over towards the forest by the Spica dorms, following the fence with her eyes and gazing over the vast grove. It was a gorgeous thing, a place where many girls had fled to to be together. She noticed the tree that stood out the most, and remembered its significance. It was Kaori and Shizuma's tree.

Soon to be in the future, Shizuma and Nagisa's tree. The mere thought of this made her jealous.

Tamao shook herself out of the gaze with a shock of discomfort. No, what Nagisa did was her own business. Nagisa and her girlfriend lover person. "I have to find my own love, a new one maybe. Or not at all. Maybe I just need to focus on my hobbies...focus on school..." She said, clapping her hands together softly as she walked away from the window. "I just need to keep the thoughts out of my mind..." she said to herself, unconvinced.

"It's hard though..." she thought to herself, as she walked by the bathroom door, and stopped. Tamao felt very nervous, as the thought flowed through her head. She felt overwhelmed, as the hesitant part of her slowly hid away, and a more curious side took over. Tamao reached for the door handle, testing it slowly. It was unlocked. Never understood why Nagisa never bothered to lock the door.

"Maybe she wants you to see..."

Tamao began to pull the door slowly, creaking it as little as possible, hoping the tumblers inside made very little noise. As the door began to wind, Tamao began to blush. She began to feel hot in her own shirt, feeling perspiration. She pushed the door open just a crack, and let her blue eyes peek through the slit to gaze upon her. Nagisa pulling her shirt off, dressed in just her bra and panties. Seeing such a private moment flooded Tamao's blood with a yearning that made her weak in the legs. The wrongness of it made her shiver, the gorgeousness of her skin, the intimacy of her curves, gazing upon something that she never thought she could see. That she knew, she would never see voluntarily.

The feelings of wrongness kicked in, and Tamao closed the door, walking briskly away from the bathroom and sitting on her bed truly ashamed of herself. Her voyeurism was maddening, embarrassing. She felt the tinging all over her body, but felt like it was unearned, stolen, wrongfully acquired. She violated Nagisa's privacy just to appease her lust.

However, it wasn't the first time, was it? Tamao had always caught herself trying to innocently sate her desires. There was subtext; in the school, it felt cute, it felt silly. When she would see Nagisa in compromising situations, she would giggle to herself and blush. Breast touches and feels were playful, non-threatening, feminine and honest.

This time, it felt pervasive. Seeped in testosterone and offensiveness, brutish. She felt like a hentai main character, just using the girls around them to sate the beast inside.

Nagisa zoned out, losing her awareness of her surroundings and focusing on fighting the feelings inside. The feeling that, she wanted way more from Nagisa than just a room mate, just a cute friend to pet and hug. That she wanted to be Nagisa's...Shizuma. To be glorious and willowy, to run her fingers through her hair and make her blush and shiver, to seductively pull along the straps of Nagisa's outfit and expose her skin, to sensually run her lips and fingers along her neck, to-

"ALL DONE!" Nagisa exclaimed, bursting out of the door and causing Tamao to squeak in surprise and bounce into the air off of her bed, taking a few breaths to try and recompose herself.

"Whoa, you okay Tamao-chan?" Nagisa happily asked, running over and petting her head, straightening out the strands that strayed. "You took me by surprise! I was zoning out again." She giggled a bit, but then slowly lowered her head.

"Nagisa-chan, I have to confess a sin." she said, despondently.

"...Why? whats wrong? Were you spying on me again?" Nagisa said playfully. "What? You knew?!" Tamao said, surprised. Was she THAT obvious? Oh no. She thought she was being sneaky this entire time.

"...Yeah, I leave the door open on purpose, Tamao...I wanted you to see." Her voice lowered, to a more carnal tone. Tamao looked up in confusion. "What? Why?" She was just as confused as before. She could hear a light humming in the room. The drone of something very far away.

"I wanted you to do more than just peek...Tamaoooo~" she moaned Tamao's name, and grabbed her arms, pushing her onto the bed. "But I see you're shy, so I'll be the aggressive one, okay?" Nagisa's red locks brushed across Tamao's face, her lips caressing Tamao's ear and neck, making her body swell with confusion and desire. Tamao became a stuttering mess as Nagisa began to disrobe, sitting ontop of her. A horrid humming began to fill her ears and flood her head. "Don't tell Shizuma, okay Tamao-san?" Nagisa grinned as she freed herself from her top, and gigantic black wings unfolded from her back and blanketed them both, blotting out all the sunlight in the room. The only thing she could see were those strawberry tinted eyes burning through the black, and the only thing she could feel were fingers going places they never went before.

"Tamao!? Tamao!" Nagisa panicked, trying to pull her paralyzed room mate back into reality. Tamao was glazen-eyed and stupid, completely unaware of her surrounding. Finally, Tamao was pulled from the demonic dream. It left her speechless, and she could feel her lungs aching, BURNING. She hadn't breathed the entire time that vision played out.

"I came out of the bathroom and told you I was ready, and you were just laying there on your bed not breathing. I got really scared!" Nagisa said. This wasn't a dream. Nagisa was fully clothed, no cacomorphic appendages extending from her back, no glowing lines, no sultry behavior. What the hell kind of daydream was that? "I don't know what happened. I was just waiting out here for you and spacing out, daydreaming is all." she lied. She remembered, she wanted to confess to spying on Nagisa. However, she was a little afraid. She was grounded in reality again, what if what she saw in her dream really played out again? Maybe it was just the day. Everyone has been feeling very different today.

"Are you sure? Because daydreams aren't supposed to make you look dead! We need to bring you to the infirmary, Tamao. Maybe we should call off our date today..."

"No, Nagisa, I want to go with you. We never get to hang out anymore, and I wanted to make it up to you..." Tamao said.

"Make what up to me? You didn't do anything wrong?" questioned Nagisa. Tamao shook her head. "No, I didn't know my place. I shouldn't have behaved like a flirty hentai towards you. I'm sorry." Tamao faked a soft smile towards Nagisa. She was good at faking smiles for her, Nagisa wasn't exactly good at picking up on subtle things like that.

"Oh...okay! Well, do you wanna go out now?" She smiled. They readied to leave the room, but as soon as Tamao reached the door, and opened it, there was something in the hallway. Dressed in black and white, a flowing dress and a majestic curtain of silver hair.

Shizuma looked down at Tamao and nodded. "I'm sorry Tamao, but is Nagisa here?"

Tamao couldn't do it. She had the whole day planned. They would cut through the forest and follow its edge along the city and grab some ice cream. The pond near the dorms had plenty of frogs to find. They would be out together for around 5 hours, just like the good ole days! Pre-Shizuma!

But the moment Shizuma rolled forward, she remembered the day at the cathedral, and how utterly demoralized she was there. Shizuma was gorgeous and charismatic, way more than her. She came in an asserted herself upon Nagisa, and rended Tamao's dreams apart. It was a shameful display, and Tamao wanted to be mad at Nagisa. She wanted to be mad at Shizuma, for flaunting her power, her beauty, her superiority over her and taking away the one dream she had put so much effort into! But the only person she was mad at was herself. She was weak. She was inferior to Shizuma.

And now, on their date, her and Nagisa could go out, and have fun. Be playful, carefree, and that silver haired celebrity just rolls by. Wants to spend the day with her...girlfriend.

Another curse word, that pained Tamao to say.

"If you both aren't doing anything, I can come by later." she said.

Yet, immediately, Tamao buckled and gave up her entire day. "No, it's fine! You both can go out!" Tamao didn't even argue for herself, didn't even keep to the plan. The moment that girl was at the door, Tamao felt herself back down, and kneel to the feet of the Alpha.

It was humiliating, and it was all her fault. "Why did I do this? Why didn't I just assert myself? Bring Nagisa out? She was willing to come by later." Tamao said as she strolled out the dormitory alone, Nagisa and Shizuma nowhere to be seen.

As Tamao walked down the path from the dorms, she looked over to the mass of police that were there, now getting ready to leave. Yaya Nanto, escorted by a headmother, were crossing paths. As Tamao gazed up and down at Yaya, the humming returned. The same she heard in that carnal fantasy of hers. It gave her a sharp headache, and she wanted to look away, but there was something about Yaya that bothered her. She was war torn, as if she was pulled from the mud after being buried for so long. Her eyes were red from crying. Her lips split from screaming and and being dry. Hair a mess, eyelashes bent and clothes ripped. What had happened to her? And why is this feeling of loss, of confusion becoming so intense as she neared Yaya?

Yaya grabbed Tamao.

"Please...you have to know her, don't you? Her name was Tsubomi!"

Tamao was put aback, and the headmother grabbed Yaya by the arm. "Yaya, stop! Don't make things worse than they already are..." said the headmother, as she led Yaya away from the Spica dormitories and to the police cars, maybe never to be seen on campus again. Tamao let the name run in her head for a few minutes. Tsubomi. Tsubomi. Tsubomi.

There was nothing but a missing gap in her memory. That name you could've swore you heard but can't connect a face to it. An event, a place, anything. As she mined her memories for anything, trying to figure out what Yaya had said, she remembered the story from earlier today. That Amane and Hikari had found her outside of the forest, the day that the wonder had happened.

"Tamao-san."

Tamao heard a call then, a very familiar whisper that made her ears pique up with excitement. "Tamao, I need your help." It was Nagisa. She was calling to her from the forest, waving to her behind the brick wall that bordered it. She looked forlorn, down trodden.

Tamao eagerly ran off the campus grass and along the wall, getting within earshot. "Nagisa? What are you doing over there? Is Shizuma with you?" Nagisa shook her head. "Tamao, we found something very disturbing. I can't tell you what it is here. Just come with me." That seemed rather weird. What could cause Nagisa to suddenly lose her bouncy and upbeat attitude? What disturbing thing had they found?

Was it a body?

"Please hurry, people are coming!" Nagisa pleaded, as she waved Tamao towards her on the brick wall. Tamao feel defensive, on edge, as the possibilities ran in her head. Nagisa held her hand out, in an attempt to help Tamao over the fence should she accept. Tamao nodded, and accepted the grasp of her friend. The strangely powerful grasp of her friend, that made something rage inside of her.

A horrible humming, a piercing shrill noise that made her body tense up and the blood flow through her system violently, her heart beating like crazy and her breathing accelerating. Almost as soon as it appeared, it was gone. "Do you feel that?" Nagisa whispered, her eyes squinting in what seemed to be fear. "Yeah! I felt it this morning too!" Tamao exclaimed, as she hopped from the brick wall over into the forest, landing in the twigs and brushes below.

"I've never felt that feeling before. It's coming from deep in the forest." Nagisa said, trailing off. As Tamao brushed herself off and looked to respond to her friend, she looked around and noticed she was already walking towards the center of the forest, ducking past the shady trees that hid her away.

"Wait, Nagisa! Don't go alone!" yelled Tamao, as she ran into the forest with her friend.

Just on the other side of the brick fence, near the dormitories, two girls walked by, one with silver hair and the other red. "Shizuma, what's wrong?" asked Nagisa, walking alongside. "I...don't know. Maybe I'm imagining things, but I thought I saw you and your friend Tamao climbing over the fence a couple seconds ago."  
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Authors Note: Instead of writing a completely new story about the same theme I decided to add onto this one. Thanks for the support, guys. We will see how Tamao and her friends fare.


	10. Chapter 10

Tamao's shoes rested from the green grass of the forest and began to step into the fetid heath beyond. She followed the glow of Nagisa's red hair against the sunbeams through the forest's canopy, until the sun faded and the lively forest began to turn gray.

This place was disturbingly wretched, so much that even the Cicadas stopped crying.

"Nagisa, can you tell me what you found now?" Tamao shouted out, wanting to stop from her sprint. As she slowed, Nagisa slowed down as well. She turned around slowly, looking towards Tamao. "Nagisa, tell me. Is it something about Yaya?" Nagisa shook her head.

"Kind of, but not exactly." Nagisa wasn't being direct, playfully leading on Tamao in order to be coy and alluring. Tamao was growing confused. "Can we not play games right now Nagisa-san? Just tell me why we came all the way out here, in a part of the forest I've never seen before. I'm getting really disgusted feelings about this place, it's not natural at all." Nagisa sighed, changing her stance from one of a playful little girl to one of a stiff-backed stalker, all business and no play.

"I have a confession, I am not the real Nagisa." her head hung low.

"...I'm sorry what?"

"I'm not the real Nagisa, Tamao Suzumi. I took this form because I knew you wouldn't have come here to the privacy of my forest and talk to me, to hear me out." Tamao stepped back a bit, shaking her head. "This joke isn't funny. You and Shizuma can stop now." Tamao smiled, nervously getting ready to leave the forest, but as soon as she turned around, Nagisa was there again.

"This isn't a joke, Tamao." Tamao was sent aback, her soft eyes turning stern and focusing on the girl before her. She began to put pieces together of her day, and how suddenly wrong everything became. "You were Yaya's demon. The thing she wanted to kill!"

The false Nagisa simply shrugged, her voice turning uncharacteristically deep and adult. Remi's own voice. "I'm not a demon, Tamao. I'm here to help you. If I wanted to kill you or harm you in anyway, wouldn't have I already done so?" She motioned to the emptiness of the forest.

"You were the one pretending to be Nagisa the entire time. In my bedroom!" Remi licked her lips a bit at Tamao's outrage. "Yeah, sorry. Couldn't help myself. I'm a bit of a pervert too. However, instead of peeking like you do, I just watched the both of you completely invisible. I can't wait to see what you two look like when you're fully grown. So much promise."

"I'll send you back to hell, you monster!" Tamao screamed, as she turned around and fled the scene. Unlike her other victims, apparently Tamao had the good sense to run in the right direction, slightly confusing Remi. She could have swore she disorientated her before she entered these woods, how was she not completely confused and running in nonsense directions like Yaya and Tsubomi had? Like Kasuza and Eri.

"You can't banish me to a place I'm already at, sweet girl." Remi grinned, as she took chase. The back of her shirt began to rise, and wings appeared. Tamao ran towards the green edges of the forest as fast as she could, but from behind her, the laughing had stopped, and powerful flapping appeared in its stead. Before she knew it, something had grabbed onto her hair, and clothes-lined her. She rose mid-air, then fell to the ground with a painful thud, and began screaming. Remi's hand closed over Tamao's face, and she felt a unnatural paralysis seep over her entire body. A creeping terror and confusion that bloomed in her brain and then turned all the nerves in her body off. What the hell was she looking at?

She could see the form of Nagisa begin to crumble away, and see the demoness for her true self, as her uniform peeled away and her red locks melted into a shining black. The soft pink eyes beginning to pulse bestial shades of green, yellow, red. However, that was not the thing that set her on edge, that made her mortified upon looking at her. It was the wings.

They were malformed, monstrous things, that blanketed the ground with shadow and made you feel unbalanced and sick upon looking at them, but one of her wings was different. It was sprouting feathers. Pure, heavenly white feathers, at first seeming like small color fragments but eventually grew and withered away the bat-like membrane. This demon had an angel's wing resting on her back, and nothing had ever looked so wrong. This creature was unworthy to bear such a glorious object.

"W-W-Where did you get that!?" Tamao whimpered, as Remi softened her grip on her face, and rose to her feet. Remi looked to her wing, and expanded it, glorious and shimmering in the bleakness of her forest's edge, almost as if it cast its own light. "It's not the where that's important, Tamao, it's the how. And How did I get something like this? I earned it. Our beloved almighty God gave me this, for helping the girls of Astraea Hill find their true loves." Remi's smile was so overfull with sadism and irony she could barely keep herself from laughing.

She was lying. How could God have rewarded such a monster with this? It had to be an illusion, a fake. She was a demon after all, if she could shape-shift into Nagisa, go invisible, then trying to confuse her with a little trick like this wouldn't be hard either. This demon was trying to attack her faith, her belief. This had to be a succubus, the great creatures of depravity, temptation, lust.

"I've...heard about ones like you." Tamao nervously said. "You believe you are helping others, you believe that terrible things have to happen no matter what, but that if you could change who suffers...that you can do good too." Remi was put off by the surprising comment. Tamao was insightful, even though she was faced with danger, with the threat of violation, with the threat of death.

"Demon, I can't trust you to tell me the truth about anything. I can only fathom you're here to spread suffering, to play God and to confuse those helpless to you. If you are going to kill me or subjugate me, then so be it. I won't play your mind games, your guessing games. Just get it over with."

"I'm not here to break anyone, I'm here to help girls like yourself. To defy the odds, and make impossible love real. It's not my fault that people want to be loved so badly, that they'd do terrible things for it. They choose to kill."

"Does being a Master of lies extend towards lies to yourself? Nobody who truly loves themselves talks about what they do in this manner. What about YOUR IMPOSSIBLE LOVES?" Remi's sadistic expression completely vanished, and her lip quivered, struggling what to say. She feigned her demonic swagger again, huffing air and flipping her bangs to the side.

"I can have anyone I want, there is no impossible love for me." Tamao let the fear in her heart slowly crawl away, while her expression went from despair, to pity. "Then...where is she?" Remi realized it, as the intimidation and aura of discomfort, disorientation and loss she set out was not working. That this girl had flipped this encounter completely around, and had start setting seeds of despair. Remi shook her head, muttering "no" under her breath. Her eyes widened and her wings spread wide, as she screamed and struck Tamao with her hand, letting the blue-haired girl fall to the ground, her white ribbon trailing slowly behind.

"I really hate girls like you. I really do. You are just like Miator. Typical that you would be in HER dormitory." Remi had to assert herself again, hide away her human side, and put the fear back into Tamao's heart, entice her into indulging the darkness. Break her spirit. This girl may have been strong willed, but she was not invincible. All people have a breaking point, and Remi was the best at breaking people. Even the indestructible Yaya caved in over time. Without a pendant, she may be unable to assault Tamao's mind while she's off campus, but she could hope nature would do the damage for her. "You know what? I'll have you begging to come see me again. I see how you long and love for that Nagisa of yours. How you see her with Shizuma, and fear openly. You stay awake at night just a few feet away from a girl you love, and can never touch her."

Tamao rose onto her hands, pushing herself back up to her feet. "I will not let you corrupt the feelings I have for Nagisa. Those are mine and mine alone. I will not lust for her or become a beast around her." Remi shrugged, trading an angry glare back to Tamao. "I don't have to corrupt anything in you. I don't have to reduce you to a yearning beast like I did Yaya. There's already a beast courting your beloved, and she will take her away from you, guaranteed." Tamao stood up, and readied to step away from the demon before her. "So, all this talk is making me think I'm not going to die, that you're going to just let me freely go back to the dorms and tell everyone the truth. Expose you, and have this horrible hell forest you live in exorcised and purged."

Remi nodded in agreement. "Indeed, that could be a problem, wouldn't it? Oh what ever could a deadly demon do to protect herself from a tattling human?" Remi flicked her wings and let red light blaze from her eyes, causing Tamao to fall to the ground in a daze, and passed out. Slowly the memories of everything that happened since Tamao entered the forest were erased, chewed away and sputtered into clusters of lost empty neurons. "This entire encounter has been a failure!" Remi swore, grabbing her hair and wiping tears off of her face. She walked over to the passed out girl and kicked her limp body. She didn't react, still and numb. "Where is my love eh? She's hiding in that grand place of angels, ascended beyond my grasp. I did everything I could to turn Astraea Hill into the place it was so many years ago. I attained the highest honor! I helped so many people! and even that wasn't enough..."

Remi stared at the blackness above her, towards the sky that her terrible trees hid. "You can't ignore me forever Miator. I'm tempting every one of them. Each one straying from the path. I will undo this beautiful place, and make it just as disgusting, monstrous and miserable as the rest of this world. When they're all gone, I'll be just like you. You and your beautiful white wings. I'll drain every single ounce of love and happiness out of these girls until I am an angel too, and I'll walk into heaven and violate everything beautiful there too."

Remi sat beside the unconscious girl, shaking her misery from her system in an attempt to recover from Tamao's sharp words. To deny the reality she spoke. Remi would try again, find a way to convince Tamao to be her pawn. What terrible mindgames to play, what heartbreak and depravity to sew? What would be the most terrible irony Tamao could endure? She would be here when she woke up, and ready herself to take away Tamao's ticket to heaven forever.


	11. Chapter 11

Around a single blue haired girl, awakening in a horrid forest, an unknown force lurked.

The unseen being gazed upon here as she rubbed her eyes, her clothes soggy from the damp ground and her hair a mess. She did not know why she was here, instead of in her dorm room. Think, Tamao. Why did you come here? What were you going to do today?

"Hello? Is anyone out there?" Tamao pleaded, as she reached for her white ribbon, only to find that it was gone. She patted her legs and chest, trying to find the delicate thing, searching the ground. She had found it upon a tree-stump, neatly folded, along with a piece of paper. A piece of paper torn from a girl's journal that nobody remembered.

Tamao immediately recognized the extremely odd circumstances she was in, and attempted to wake herself up. She realized she was not asleep, and that the seemingly supernatural situation she was in was real, however, she did not feel threatened, did not feel a sense of foreboding. Remi had to catch this new prey off guard, she could not be easily swayed from her ideals, and would sooner let herself die than bring harm to another. However, she had been thinking of this all wrong. No one thing can be instantly corrupted. People are not born craving drugs, they do not emerge into the world thirsty and insatiable, willing to do whatever they can to satisfy their wanting. They needed a taste first.

Tamao narrowed her eyes at the piece of paper, as she tied her ribbon back into her hair, and picked it up, opening it. It was a picture. Almost like a painting, but the colors were extremely vivid, as if freshly painted. It felt as if the colors glowed bright through the monochromatic darkness of the forest. It was a picture of her and Nagisa. They were older, around twenty or so. Nagisa's hair was long and flowing, banded in beautiful ribbons. Her clothing was slim and in the same fashion as a housewife's, However her face kept its trademark cuteness, with big eyes and a silly smile. Tamao had become a woman as well, and she was clutching this girl happily. Not in a simple friend photograph like the others that they were taken in, as she was kissing Nagisa on the cheek, her own eyes so full of happiness, accomplishment, and completion. Their hands bound tight together in this loving image of theirs.

And their hands were adorned with rings that seemed to shine in the blackness of the forest, giving so much life and light to the image. They were married.

It was the most beautiful thing that Tamao had seen. It was also the strangest. Tamao shook her head in disbelief, and looked at the image again. It was still there, and eerily prominent in her surroundings. Things began to click in her head, as she tried to piece together the meaning and origin of this all. Waking up in a deathly looking forest, and being led to an image that held what you wanted most on it, just reeked of ominousness.

"Who is out there? What is this all about?" Tamao pleaded, cautiously backing up from the stump. "What you see there, that snapshot of your future, is in danger." spoke a soft voice, just behind Tamao. She wheeled around, but saw nothing. Again, behind her, a voice spoke. "Do you wonder why you came here, dear Tamao-san?"

She quieted, nodding to the disembodied voice. "Yes, I have many questions. What is this picture? Who are you?" she asked.

The being that revealed itself. Long blue locks laid across her dress, while a very familiar white ribbon laid tied in her hair. A glowing ring upon her hand. This girl was older than her but so youthful and gorgeous, and familiar. "You're me!?" Tamao shouted, taken aback.

"You are in only a few ways. You're trapped in an aberration, a disassociated timeline. Certain nights I have nightmares of that fateful day, when Shizuma confessed to Nagisa during the Etoile ceremony. I have nightmares that she chose Shizuma instead of me. While my dream came true, and Nagisa chose me, there isn't always a guarantee. The chance that the dream would become the nightmare. You are living that nightmare, Tamao."

"What do you mean, Nagisa choosing me? How could I have beaten out Shizuma? She's absolutely gorgeous. She could have any girl she wants, and when she fell in love with Nagisa, my fate was sealed. We were not meant to be."

The future Tamao put her hands onto Tamao's shoulders, reassuringly. "Don't say that, Tamao. Don't lose hope. I would see this forest all the time, when I dreamed, and never knew why. There was nothing here. Now, I know the true purpose. It's to save you, save us. Everyone can see their future selves when they come here, and either have good happen, or bad happen. I'm here to make sure you don't allow our future to end, to lock yourself down in a world without love. Tamao, I believe in you because I know it can come true. Don't let Shizuma take our one true love away. You deserve to hear Nagisa tell you she loves you."

The heartbreak that grew in Tamao's body began to make her feel scared. This was too much. The chance that she had thought had passed, and was never meant to be, was coming back. She did not need to consign her heart to living alone, to moving on. To hoping another would come into her life and fill the hole that Nagisa would have been.

"What do I do? Shizuma and Nagisa are together. The etoile ceremony is over, and she has chosen her." Tamao looked down in a loss of hope. "Tamao, we both know the answer to that. You need to keep Shizuma away from her. You need to conquer this inferiority complex you have. Just because Shizuma is taller, more wealthier, with more fans and admirers does not mean you need to back down and accept the plate you're given. Fight for her. Do you love her, Tamao?"

"Yes! Yes I do!" The older Tamao then patted her younger self's head, straightening out her hair ribbon and giving her an encouraging smile. "Then get out there and rescue her. Just tell her how you feel, raw and unfiltered. Everything. She will choose you. After all, if she wouldn't, I wouldn't be here now would I?" The older Tamao gestured to the picture younger Tamao held, of them both as a happy married couple. "Keep this safe, and let nobody see it." Then, the older Tamao vanished.

The background of the night, black and intimidating, began to fade. The glow of moonlight could be seen, creating a path through the forest that led her away from the heath of wicked wood. Tamao followed it, her hope renewed. Staring at the image the entire time, trying to come up with the right things to say. This hope made her radiate with enthusiasm, and that is exactly what the creature masquerading as Tamao wanted. As the older girl's exterior melted away, and Remi returned to her sultry demon self, she weighed the chances. Her disguise, her encouraging speech, her attempts to raise the spirit of Tamao was a gamble. If she succeeds in winning Nagisa, then she had wasted valuable energy doing nothing. If she fails, she may be willing to do the unthinkable to have her. The chance of losing out on Tamao felt ominous, but Remi refused to believe she would fail this time.

"Poor girl. She has no idea what's going to happen, does she? That's not how the real world works. Love doesn't happen because you want it to. Lust conquers all, and you're nothing to lust for, Tamao. Let's see how devout and uncorruptable you are when your heart is broken."


End file.
